《Rise Of House Falken (Harry Potter Fan Fiction)》


 Chapter 1 - Death and the New Beginning

    Today was an awful day, I worked at the office for 14 hours straight. What made it worse was that it was a Sunday. I had been working at this company for 2 years and it was rough. Working hours was from 8 am to 7 pm every day of the week and the only Sunday was a holiday. But yesterday there was some trouble with a client and I had to work on a Sunday to meet his needs. It was tiring and took the whole day. This has been my life from the moment I took this job. The pay was good and I had to search for months before I found a job so even though I was overworked I did not resign from the company to look for another job with better working hours.


    My name is Charles Clive. I am 26 years old now and had moved out of my parents'' house to live on my own. The flat was good and rent was cheap. The week long job left me so tired that Sunday I had no time to go out and meet my friends. I had lost contact with most of them in these two years that I started working in this company. The Sundays were spent doing laundry and sitting in bed watching movies or reading some novels. The novels included various manga and fan fictions and then to light novels. The books gave an escape from thoughts about my current life and helped keep me sane. So this was my lifestyle for the past two years, job and then novels. My health was deteriorating and many people asked me to leave the job and look for new one. I decided to stay for one more year as with it I would have enough saved up to last me for a few years to look for a good job. So I continued this job.


    But last week was too hectic and including today I was too tired. Thinking about next week gave me chills. No wonder most people left the company within 2 years as it would affect their health too. I was too tired to think anymore and directly went to bed and fell asleep. Then the darkness took over me.


    The next time when I opened my eyes something felt different. The first thing I noticed was this was not my room and I was not alone. I looked around and the place was a bit old and everything looked about decades old. My body also felt old and I couldn''t even control my hands properly. I looked at my body for the first time since opening my eyes and was shocked. I saw small legs and hands. I was somehow trapped inside a baby''s body. I panicked after realizing this. At this time, I felt someone trying to calm me down. I looked up and saw a tired woman looking at me with kind eyes. I could feel an emotional attachment to her. From this I could tell that she was the mother of the baby I was possessing. For some reason whatever she did was calming me down. After calming down I looked at her again and the way she looked at me gave me a bad feeling.


    The woman said sadly, "Charles Daniel Falken. My beautiful baby boy. I am sorry but it looks like I cannot accompany you and watch as you grow. I can feel that my death is near and pretty soon I am going to be joining your father. I know that I am a bad mother, leaving you to live a life of an orphan in this tough world. But I know that you will become a powerful wizard someday who would make me and your father proud. You belong to House Falken and I leave it in your care. I know it will be tough task in this cruel world and you may need me but I cannot live without your father any longer. The last few months were very tough without him. I hope you can forgive me someday. Goodbye."


    After that she closed her eyes, I felt something break in my heart and knew she will not open her beautiful blue eyes again. She used her last strength to give her baby a name and then left for her next great adventure. I don''t know why but I couldn''t control my tears and started crying loudly. I cried for a long time until the tiredness caught up to me and I fell asleep.


    The next time I opened my eyes I was in a room with a few other babies. This room too looked like the old buildings in movies. I started to think about the events and started to come in terms with it.


    "From what I can tell it seems I died due to my health and was reborn. I knew I had to look after my health but I postponed it till I felt it was serious. Looks like the hectic week was too much for my already week body and most probably my heart couldn''t take the stress." I thought.


    I hoped that my death would not severely hurt my loved ones. My family would be sad but my siblings can take care of my parents. I was thankful that I was not a single child so they would have help during their old age. I thought about them for some time, prayed that they will live a comfortable life and not let my death affect them. After that I steeled my determination and decided to look forward to my new life. My last life which was full of regrets was now over and I had to make sure that I do not have any regrets in this life.


    I thought, "I was always curious about what happens after death. It looks like reincarnation is the answer. I don''t know why I still have my past memories and everything as it gives me an unfair advantage over others my age but I was not complaining. I guess the ones in charge made some kind of a mistake."

 Chapter 2 - New Life

    "I am happy that I kept my original name. Now I need to get a feel of this world. From what my mother said, it is a world with wizards and I am also a wizard. The world looks the same as my previous but it seems like I am born before 1990s as the things I see in this room look old and outdated for me. When I read those fanfictions I always wished I was born in a fantasy world. It always gave a thrill fantasizing about what I will do if I was in that world. I can make use of those now. The only fantasy world in novels that I know which is both modern and contains wizards is Harry Potter universe. It could be that or a completely different one. I don''t know as I have not read all the novels in the world and there may be some other novel with the same setting. I hope it is HP world as I have read the novel and countless fan fictions. I can adapt to any scenario in this world. I am sure of it. All this is well and good but becoming an orphan in a fantasy world at birth sucks. It is too dangerous. Me keeping my memories after rebirth somewhat makes up for it I guess but still it sucks. Now to find out more information about this world."


    I looked around the room looking for some clues. There was a calendar hanging on the wall. It showed the month June and the year 1977. The date gave me more hope that it was HP world. The years were too close to just be a coincidence.


    Suddenly, the door opened and two nurses came in to the room. They went about looking at the other children and taking some notes on their clip board. Soon it was my turn. Seeing that I was awake they smiled sadly at me and started talking between themselves.


    "Poor child. His mother died just after giving birth to him and she said that his father died a few months ago. Looks like we have to inform the proper authorities to decide about his future."


    "Has he been named? We need it to fill the forms."


    "His mother named him Charles Daniel Falken and her name was Sara. That''s all we know. She suddenly came into the hospital alone in labour. She paid the money at the reception and was admitted. It was decided to get more information about her after the child birth. So we do not know much about her. Let''s fill in his name as she gave and then the date of birth as 4 June 1977."


    "Alright. Let''s go finish the formalities."


    Then they left the room.


    I thought, "Orphanage. I hope it is a good one with enough funding. Mother said I belonged to House Falken. If this is HP world, then it looks like I am from at least a Noble house. She left the house to me so I am the only one left in it. I don''t know if there are any house elves in the family. If there are it will be very helpful. I need some help to prepare before I join the wizarding world. I would have to wait till I can talk clearly to call them, if there are any, but I had to do it as soon as possible as they may die due to loss of magic from lack of bond. I hope that they can last long enough. There is no rush to think about anything else so let''s wait and see."


    A few days went by in the hospital with the same routine. I was tired too easily and most of the time was spent sleeping. When I was hungry I would start crying and the nurses would feed me from a bottle. I started copying the other babies around me otherwise. It was fun crying when one of the other babies started crying. It was fun watching the nurses run around trying to calm each baby.


    Soon a strict looking lady came and took me from the hospital. We travelled by car to a large building which I guessed was the orphanage. We went inside and entered the matron''s room. The Matron was not too old. Maybe in her 50s. They took care of the formalities and the matron took me to my room. It already had 3 other babies in it. I looked around the orphanage and it was in good condition and I felt the living conditions will be good.


    Eating and sleeping routine continued but as time went by I felt bored. To pass time I started to meditate. It is always good to meditate but in this world I could meditate and try to feel my magic. I wanted to have my magic always in my control as I did not want any accidental magic. It would make people afraid of me and the fear will turn into hate. So taking full control of my magic was very important.


    The above routine continued for about 6 months. I did not want to be singled out as weird so I followed the examples of my roommates. Whatever they did, I would replicate like crying when hungry or when they felt like it.


    Even if I find a house elf it would be better to live here as it would be less suspicious. So I started planning,


    "From my knowledge if you don''t want to be bullied, you have to fit in. So I can''t behave like a genius or a dumb person. I have to be average. I have to do this until I am physically strong enough to intimidate them from attacking me. That means to start talking and walking nearly at the same time as others. This does not mean that I have to be slow at developing my body. I have to get all the advantage I can get due to rebirth. So that means to exercise vocal cords and doing flexibility exercise when others are asleep and hide my growth."


    So the days went on like this. Meditation did not give much results in magic but it made my mind clearer and sharp. So I continued. Me and the other kids had started saying words and walking. I was already able to talk and walk long before others but hid it and practised both when no one was monitoring me. I did not try calling the elf as I could not go to a secluded place to try it. I had to wait until I was left alone. I was still hoping for an elf as I felt my mother should have had some help during her pregnancy. She could not have done everything and come to the hospital if she was alone. She must have had some kind of help. I was banking on it.


    When I was 1 and half year old, I was moved to a dormitory in which there were 5 other kids with me. Acting like a kid for me was very tough. Living with other kids and not correcting their silly mistakes and doing similar things is very difficult for a 28-year-old soul. It was very tough but I still had to do it to fit in with others.

 Chapter 3 - House Elf

    Time-Skip.


    Today was the day I was going to try my luck with the elf. I am now 2 and a half years old. I am now able to talk normally in complete sentences but the caretakers do not know that. I waited so long as I wanted to be able to converse with the elf. My daily meditation had produced results. During one session of meditation I decided to concentrate on a position near my tummy which felt weird to me. It felt weird as I did not have this sensation in that area in my past life. I could vaguely feel something there but that was it. After some weeks of trying I finally saw in my mind what I think was my magical core. It was a ball of white gas. I could see it but still could not control it.


    In the evening I went to a hidden place and called, "Falken family elf come to me."


    I waited but there was nothing. I concentrated hard on my magic and then tried again.


    After a few seconds there was a pop sound and a small creature came into view. I was overjoyed. It looked like an elf from HP world and finally confirmed my guess that I was in HP world.


    The elf looked at me and asked, "Who are you? Why did you call Sherry? Why does your magic feel familiar?"


    I showed a confused expression and replied to Sherry, "I am Charles Falken. I was trying something and you came. What are you?"


    Sherry was over the moon after hearing my words. She said, "You are Young master Charles. Mistress Sara told Sherry she was going to give birth to her son before she left me. Sherry waited for Mistress Sherry to come back with Young Master but suddenly Sherry lost her bond with Mistress that day. Sherry did not know what to do and waited at Mistress''s house. Sherry is so happy that Sherry found young master. Sherry is a house elf young master."


    I said, "I have many questions but that can wait. But first what is a bond?"


    Sherry replied, "House elf bond with wizards to get magic to live. Sherry was close to losing her magic. She lived this long by using the magic at the house. Sherry is so happy that she found young master. Now Sherry can live. A bond also makes sure that the house elf follows the instructions of the master and does not go against it."


    I asked, "so in exchange for magic from the bond, house elves work for the wizards. Ok Got it. Can I bond with you at this age? I don''t want you to die."


    When Sherry nodded happily, I asked her how to form a bond. She gave me the instructions and I followed it. When the bond was finalised, there was a bright flash of light confirming it. After that I told Sherry to take me to the house where my mother lived. She took me to the house.


    After a lot of questions and answers, I finally got a gist of things. My father''s name was Daniel Robert Falken and my mother''s name was Sara Emily Falken nee Acton. My father was a part of the Neutral faction of the Wizengamot and was chased by death eaters when the death eaters needed money for their activities. When the Falken manor was attacked after my mother became pregnant, they knew that they had to go into hiding for my safety. So they decided to live in a house they owned from my mother''s side which no one else knew about. They put the Falken manor into stasis and moved here. My grandparents from both sides were dead and I did not ask the details of their deaths. I was a pureblood but my mother''s family was a recent one. House Falken was a Most Ancient and Noble House and I was the only member of it. I also did not have any relatives. My father had died during an attack at the ministry when he attended a Wizengamot meeting and my mother was devastated due to his death. After that her health deteriorated and no help from Sherry could help fix her. She somehow kept on living for my sake.


    I asked Sherry about the manor and she replied that she was also locked out from it. The only way to go there was by activating the manor through the Lord ring which I could get only after I became 17. Sherry was also the only Falken family elf.


    I looked around the house. I wanted to find what all I could make use of. The house had two floors. It had 3 bedrooms with bathrooms, a library, a hall and a kitchen. It was a small cosy home. The house had wards but they were very weak now. I could not power them up without knowing how to and I do not want to risk anything happening to me. Even Sherry did not know how to power up the wards. My parents'' bedroom had their photos. For the first time I saw the picture of my father. My mother too looked totally different from what I had seen at the hospital. They both were happy and vibrant. My father was of average build. He had long black hair which was tied in a ponytail and brown eyes. He looked handsome and had quite a charm to him. My mother had dark brown hair and beautiful blue eyes. She looked beautiful. I had inherited black hair from my father and my mother''s blue eyes. I had tears in my eyes looking at the pictures of them. After some time in the room thinking about my dead parents, I closed the room and went to the library.


    The library had a lot of books. From the looks of the collection of books, it seems that they were planning to spend many years here raising me here too. The library had all Hogwarts books of all years. They looked used so they most probably belonged to my parents. It also contained the Falken family Grimoire. I hit the jackpot when I found the book on mind magic. This was the most important book for me to survive in this world. The book would save me from Snape, Dumbledore and Voldemort. I looked around and found many more useful books.


    It was soon time for me to go back to the orphanage. I told Sherry to check if the coast was clear and pop me back. I told her to go back to the house and look after it and wait for my call. I reached the orphanage and went to my room. No one had noticed my absence. It was the benefit of living in a large orphanage. No one cared where you were. I decided to live in the orphanage as it was much more convenient. If I lived in my house I had to be careful of the neighbours as they would call the police when they find a small boy living inside an abandoned house. Also my Gringotts vault was closed and I had to visit the bank to unlock it. I did not plan on visiting the bank without having the full knowledge about it so the visit had to wait. I decided on taking trips to the library and looking through the books during my free time

 Chapter 4 - Mind and Magic

    My advantages in this world would be my stronger soul which had gone through reincarnation, my ?du?t mind and the prophetic knowledge of this world. This was more than enough of a cheat for me to be the most powerful wizard in the history of this world.


    I decided to read up on various necessary fields first. The first two books I decided to read up on were the book on mind magic and the book on magic cores. They were the most important books that were required for me to plan my optimal mental and magical growth. These two books were readily available in the library.


    The first book was the one on mind magic. It had two sections. Occlumency and Legilimency. The first topic was Occlumency. From what I understand from the book, first the user has to focus the magic on his mind while meditating to view his mind. The memories of untrained mind are like sphered of lights floating around in mind, easily accessible to anyone with legilimency skill. The user has to organize the memories in an order familiar to them and erect a barrier around to protect them from being accessed by others. Advanced users are able to build a mindscape and hide their memories in it. They are able to build various defences in their mindscape varying from person to person. Master occlumens are even able to show false memories to anyone who enters their mind, they are able to even lie under veritaserum and show false or modified memories in a pensieve.


    Only after someone had rudimentary understanding of Occlumency can someone learn Legilimency. So I left that part for later.


    Following the steps, I quickly accessed my mind and saw my memories like floating balls of light. I did not try to arrange the memories and add shields just yet. I decided to thoroughly understand the method and try to apply modern concepts to make the arrangements more efficient. To do this I needed more research. For the time being I planned on practising trying to access my mind more quickly during meditation.


    The second book was on Magic core. After reading through the book, I had reached a conclusion. Magic core of a wizard is the place where all the magic present inside a wizard is situated. When you do a spell the magic from your core flows through the channels to your fingertips and helps you to do the spell. It is in the form of a ball of gas before magical maturity and after maturity that is at the age of 17 it transforms into a ball of liquid. To do magic the magic inside must flow in the fastest possible way in only one direction this is very hard to do in gas form as it gasses flows freely and it is very hard to concentrate it to a particular direction. This is why to make sure that the gas is controlled when wizards are young, the education of wizards is mandatary till maturity. After that wizards are in control of their magic and not a danger to the society. So they are left to their own uses.


    The magic inside a baby is unstable and small. It grows with age without doing anything and only when they are 11 years old is when it is stabilised enough and they have enough magic to do spells. The growth of magic can be accelerated using many methods but it cannot be done by children as it is very difficult to explain to them the mechanism and the process. With constant use of magic, the volume of gas grows and during maturity the it is converted to liquid of same volume. Then to increase magic you have to increase the volume of liquid and it is slower than increasing the volume of gas. So the best age to increase the volume of magic present in the body is before maturity. The places with more magic concentration gives better results like in Hogwarts. so I could only expect better results only after going there.


    From these two books I had all the information I needed to plan the perfect growth of my magic and mind.


    Now I had to gather the necessary knowledge for my Occlumency training. I had Sherry disguise herself as an ?du?t and take me to the London Central Library. House elf magic was really handy but it was an illusion and could only fool the non-magic users. At the library I read up books on library management and computer memory management. These books gave me an idea on how to arrange my memories more efficiently in Occlumency.


    To accelerate my magical growth, I had to deplete my magical reserves and then restore it continuously. To deplete my magical reserves, I had to do magic. Magic is like a muscle, the more you exercise it, the stronger it becomes. From what I understand accidental magic is just wandless magic performed during periods of high emotions. So when a child wants something very badly like a toy or something, he wills his magic to do so. This is accidental magic. So practising wandless magic at a very young age is the best as when you get used to doing magic with a wand it is very tough to go back to the going wandless.


    The simplest spell and the one that needs the least magic should be the Lumos charm. So the best way to exhaust my reserves is to do this charm and hold it as long as possible till my reserves become empty. I found a secluded spot, pointed my index finger like a wand and softly said Lumos while concentrating. I felt a tingling sensation and there was the tiniest spark of light at my finger tip. It lit for a few seconds and went out. I practised doing it again and again till I felt very tired and I knew my reserves were exhausted. I tiredly walked to my room and went to bed.


    No wonder only a few wizards can do magic wandlessly. First, it takes more magic to do and before the age of 11 the magic cores of wizards are very small to do any magic wandless. A few lumos spells exhausted my magic quickly. Second, after getting a wand, wizards get accustomed to a wand to do magic easily and it gets harder and harder for them to do magic wandlessly.

 Chapter 5 - Early Years

    So now I had things to do in the orphanage. It made me elated. The years before were too boring for me as I had nothing to do. For a person who worked for 11 hours a day in his previous life, doing nothing and moving around aimlessly was very difficult. I had this sudden urge to be active all the time while I was awake. Now I have things to do I did not have to feel restless all the time.


    My schedule was wake up, Occlumency training and just before nap times exhaust my magic reserves. So I practised magic for only two times a day while rest of the free time was spent with Occlumency. Exhausting magic was tiring so I could do it only before nap times as I will have a reason to go to sleep.


    I knew that I had to support magical growth with stronger physical body as having a strong and flexible container is better for magic growth. More magic in a weak body would make it unstable. But I could not do any strenuous exercises at this young age as it would affect my normal physical growth. I had to wait for some years before I could do this. I also did not know any standard physical exercises as in my past life I did not go to any gyms or dojos. So I had to wait until I was old enough to join a dojo and then build up my strength. For now, maybe I could run like the other kids for daily exercise.


    Days went on like this with the usual practices. At the age of 4 I started my primary schooling at a local state funded school. I decided to act like a genius as it would give me more advantages later. My best option was to finish secondary schooling before starting Hogwarts because then I could go to university after it without any problems. I could do this as I already knew all of the subjects and with some revising and the eidetic memory provided by Occlumency, I could ace all my classes. The only problem was the time constraint and me being an orphan. So I had to wait for teachers to notice me and gain scholarships to do it. It was going to be tough but I did not care. The more I struggle now, the better my future.


    So I started to act like a genius and not hide my intelligence from everyone. I was already becoming a kind of an introvert in my orphanage so there was no problem. I did not have to fear bullying for some years and by then I planned to be physically strong enough to intimidate them and make them fear crossing me.


    Today was November 1, 1981. This date was very important in the wizarding world. It was the day after Voldemort was supposedly killed by Harry Potter, the soon to be known as Boy Who Lived. I did not try to particularly remember this day. I was reminded of it when I saw people in black robes smiling and celebrating in the streets. It was not a group but some individuals acting like this throughout the day. The people in the streets looked at them weirdly. Since it was a onetime thing and there was no magic performed I did not see any obliviators. The muggles thought they belonged to a religious group and were celebrating some festival of their religion as the weird people were all dressed similarly. It was even in the newspapers.


    I did not care much about it. I was only 4 years old now and there was a long time before I joined the wizarding world. I did not care much about the difficult life that Harry Potter was going to live from now on. Doing something about it was like having a death wish. I did not know what kind of Dumbledore was in this world, the good one, the senile one, the manipulative one or the evil one. Meeting any of those was not good for me. I had more important things to do. I also had to make sure that I kept my prophetic knowledge intact.


    Practising martial arts was very good for my body and since I had an ?du?t mind, it was easy for me to follow the instructions of the Dojo master. He was surprised by my speed of picking things up and treated me like as if I was a genius martial artist.


    During my free time from all the exercises I would read up on the world. Both the mundane world and the wizarding world. My magic core had not stabilised yet and I did not have enough magic to do even the tough first year spells wandlessly. All I could do now was Lumos, summon things and other small spells that I found in first year books. I was not tall enough to do potions as I at least had to reach the huge cauldron to start practising making potions. So I started reading up on many other things.

 Chapter 6 - The Cruel World

    The mundane world was about the same with nearly the same history and the same famous businesses. There were some events in the history which felt somewhat off but otherwise everything was same.


    The wizarding world was a little different from the world shown in the HP books. It was a bigoted world from my point of view. I could even call this world borderline evil. The muggleborns were truly exploited in this world. They took advantage of the excitement the muggle borns had on being introduced to magic. Books on wizarding law and etiquette were not sold in the stores of diagon Alley as they wanted muggleborns to break some laws and unknowingly offend the purebloods and they also did not want the muggle borns to use the laws against them. The fees charged for muggleborns to attend Hogwarts were higher than normal and the Headmaster was made their magical guardian without their knowledge. He could sign contracts for them without their knowledge and also make sure that muggle borns did not cause any problems for the purebloods when they were attacked by the purebloods. I don''t know if he did that as there was no way it would be shown in papers.


    After paying high fees for 7 years of their Hogwarts education, they were left to their own devices. They could only get the lowest paying posts without any promotions in the ministry and other various fields.


    Most of the toughest laws against them were made after Grindelwald war so I knew Dumbledore was behind them getting passed. It was not done in open and most would feel that these laws were made by the dark families but I knew Dumbledore was behind them otherwise it would not be possible to pass so many of these unfair laws. Dumbledore would pass some useless laws for the muggle borns here and there and publicise it heavily. This would make sure that people still saw him as the Light Lord and praised him. The other laws are not publicised.


    Another new law was there was no scholarship fund for orphans in Hogwarts. When they were found, the ministry would send people to bind their magic permanently. No one wanted to spend their tax money for the education of muggle born orphans as they gave them no returns due to not being able to get good jobs. This law was also passed after Dumbledore became Chief Warlock. If this law was passed before Tom Riddle went to Hogwarts, then there would not have been a Lord Voldemort in this world. The muggleborns were first checked to see if their parents could afford to send their children to Hogwarts and if they could not then their magic was bound and memories wiped without giving them any chance to look for any other options for their magical studies.


    I don''t know why but Dumbledore hated Muggle borns from what I can conclude. There have been many deaths of muggle borns inside Hogwarts with no investigations or anyone getting punished. The memories of the parents were changed to make it seem like they died in a car crash. Their memory of magic was removed.


    The seats in the Wizengamot were hereditary. There were some seats for Order of Merlin members but since the committee that decided that award was full of bigoted people, no muggleborn had ever won one.


    I am glad that I am a pureblood and I was able to read all these books otherwise I would not have survived in this world. Due to this information I would have to gather and understand all the laws of this world as it was a world of greedy people. Even now I will have to be very careful in this world.


    War orphans were not treated well in this world. From the laws passed after the Grindelwald war, Dumbledore as the Hogwarts Headmaster could control the vaults of the orphans by becoming their magical guardian. There was not much known about these orphans after they had left Hogwarts but with this I can tell that were treated badly. There are no famous names in today''s wizarding world who were orphans so something happened to them after Hogwarts. I am sure that their vaults were emptied by the time they left and the ones who protested most probably had their memory removed or worse. The only orphans who were safe were orphans of old families. Their family vaults had the best protections to make sure that these thing did not happen to them.


    So I had to be careful on what I sign and when I activate my Gringotts vaults. I had to read up more on the various laws that were passed recently and I asked Sherry to go buy the new law books. The books could be found in Knockturn Alley and many people used House elves so it would not cause any unwanted attention. I also needed to read up on the function of Gringotts and various Wizarding Etiquettes. I can already foresee many people waiting for me to make mistakes to profit from it.


    The education standard in the wizarding world was also deteriorating. It had also begun after the Grindlewad war when Dumbledore came in power. Many subjects were removed slowly without causing much attention. The old generation wizards were afraid of another strong dark wizard coming up and causing havoc so they sacrificed the strength of the future generations of wizards. They decided to teach these subjects to their kids at home. It was done not only in the UK but also in many parts of Europe. The wizards that graduate now would not have even half the strength of the wizards who graduated before the war. Dumbledore had readily agreed with them as he did not want anyone to become stronger than him.


    From all this I could surely say that the wizarding world was moving towards their doom. While the wizards had stunted their growth after the war, the non-magicals had accelerated theirs. From the 1940s while the strength of wizarding world was decreasing, the technological development of non-magical world had accelerated. If a war happened between the two now, then the one who would win was the non-magical side. From the books I could tell only the situation of Europe and could not tell much about the situation of rest of the world. Hopefully they did not commit the same mistake otherwise magic would end in a couple of centuries.

 Chapter 7 - Wizarding Families and Falken Family History

    Another important thing to read up on was the various noble families in the magical world and how they were ranked. It was clearly written in the book book ''Nature''s Nobility: A wizarding Geneoligy''.


    The truly powerful families were a group of families called the sacred 28 who were considered to be truly pure blood as the people in these families had not married any half-blood or muggle born into the family yet. The families were Abbot, Avery, Black, Bulstrode, Burke, Carrow, Crouch, Fawley, Flint, Gaunt, Greengrass, Lestrange, Longbottom, Macmillan, Malfoy, Nott, Ollivander, Parkinson, Prewett, Rosier, Sewlyn, Shacklebolt, Rowle, Shafiq, Slughorn, Travers, Weasley and Yaxley. Most of these families had lost most of its magical strength due to inbreeding and were slowly dying out. Potter was not one of the sacred 28 as they married muggle borns to keep their magic strong but they still had a very high status in the Wizengamot.


    The houses were categorised based on the number of years they were formed. The house which have more than 600 years of history were called Most Ancient houses. Above 400 were called Ancient houses. The houses which had more than 500,000 Galleons net worth were known as Noble houses and the houses with both history and wealth were called Ancient and Noble houses. There was also a minimum amount of ?ssets that a family needed to keep their status. Only some of the sacred 28 families were Ancient and Noble Houses. Families like Malfoy were only Noble houses who had settled down in Britain from France only some 200 years ago. but with their wit and money they had gone on to bring a lot of other families to become their vassals and had become powerful. Potter, Black, Bones, Longbottom were some examples for Most Ancient and Noble Houses. Dumbledore was just a Noble house and he had power in the government only due to his achievements. The Falken family was a Most Ancient and Noble House. Not much was written about my family in the book.


    Some families had lost their powers over the years like the Weasley and Prewett families due to broken contracts and loss of money and ?ssets. Some families had become vassals to other families to keep their status in the Wizengamot after losing money over the years. This had become quite common during the recent years as many families had lost a lot of their money during the two wars. With Voldemort using the money of the Dark and Neutral families and Dumbledore using the donations from the Light families, everyone lost a lot of their ?ssets. With the loss of properties during attacks on the homes and businesses, a lot was lost.


    There were many more Ancient families in the book which I had not even heard of which I guessed were wiped out completely by Grindelwald and Voldemort.


    Looking at the list of families I can guess why some of the death eaters got scot free after the wars. They had too much power in the Wizengamont. With the near extinction of truly powerful political Light families, the Dark families had an upper hand in the Wizengamot. If I was Voldemort, I could have used this power to rule the wizards from behind the scenes than openly fight kind of like Malfoy is doing now. Voldemort brilliantly used this after he was resurrected in 1995 but again got blinded by the prophesy and made mistakes. If he had just gone on like that, he could have taken over the whole ministry in another year without any loss on his part. But from the fact that he had made a Horcrux in his 5th year itself, I knew that his sanity was compromised at that point. So it was possible for him to do crazy things like that.


    From this I finally have an idea of families I must not offend or else I might be sent to Azkaban on trumped up charges.


    I also opened my Family Grimoire and started reading up on my family history. The Falken family was had a long history. They started out as a hunter tribe and slowly grew in status. They were renowned for their strength in hunting magical beats. The family was at its peak in the 19th century and slowly lost their strength and status. The most important reason for losing the family gift during that time. It was like the metamorphmagus in Black family. The gift of Falken family was they had Mage Sight. It gave them very good eye sight plus the ability to see magic. The people with mage sight could see the magic surrounding magical buildings, wards, and they could see the magical aura of people. They could tell if a person was magical easily. Even Animagus could not hide from them. From the aura they could also sense the strength of a person.


    Many people had replicated mage sight using glasses with special runes like Dumbledore but it only detected invisible magical people and did not allow people to sense magical strength or differentiate an Animagus.


    The gift was hidden from others and no one other than the main family knew about this gift. It was told to the life partner only when accompanying oaths on their life and magic. It was the gift which made it possible for the Falken family to find the magical creatures quickly to hunt. The gift stopped appearing in new family members from the 18th century and after that the strength of the family was considerably reduced.


    The reason for the loss of gift from what I could tell was inbreeding. The Falken family did not believe in blood supremacy and the inbreeding was caused due to the problems at that time. During the witch hunting periods, the wizards and witches had very small options on marrying due to the fear of being found out. So they could only marry between other wizarding families and slowly everyone was interrelated. This caused inbreeding and many families started losing their magical strength.


    Only after losing their gift and strength did the family members start looking for new families to marry but the it did not come back till now. My mother told me to bring the family to rise from the ashes so I needed the gift. The gift needed a ritual to activate. It was performed on the family member''s 7th birthday. If the ritual was successful in activating mage sight in the person''s blood, then there were other benefits to it too. If the ritual was unsuccessful then only some increase in eyesight is obtained.


    No one had been able to activate mage sight in two centuries. Due to the gap and my father''s and mother''s families not being related and due to my powerful soul due to reincarnating, I was quite hopeful in getting the gift.

 Chapter 8 - Family Ritual - I

    Days passed with me doing my various physical, mental and magical exercises and also reading various books. My Occlumency was coming along very nicely. I could even do legilimency now. I practised it on my roommates and caretakers at the orphanage and I could browse through their memories. The speed was a little slow and it was increasing with practise. At first it caused them headaches but as I become better at Legilimency, the headaches disappeared. My magical reserves were also slowly increasing. It was still not quite possible for me to do spells which required more reserves and I was waiting for my magic to stabilise. I expected my magic core to stabilise on my 7th birthday according to my observations and research. On the seventh birthday every child would get a boost in their magic core and hence it was the age when the less talented children showed accidental magic.


    My school life was also progressing as expected. The teachers had taken notice of my genius and made me take the tests for high school early. I was set to start my high school from the next school year in August. It was 4 years earlier than normal and gave me enough time to finish the 7 years of high school before joining Hogwarts. My performance also gave the school publicity and they were happy to give me scholarships.


    My performance at school also gained me a single room at the orphanage. The matron was happy to have a genius in her orphanage. There were some jealous children but I showed them not to mess with me on the first instance of bullying. My martial arts classes were also coming along very well. I was learning very quickly. Reading dojo master''s mind while he explained various moves made it very easy to understand.


    Today was 3rd June 1984. I was making final preparations before the ritual. I was in my house and not at the orphanage. I had informed the matron that I was going out for 2 days. She asked me some questions and I made an excuse that I was going to attend some lecture. She did not try to stop me as she knew that I was a good boy and could take care of myself. There was no school as the summer vacation had just started.


    I emptied an unused bedroom and decided to do the ritual there. I did not understand much of the runes needed to be inscribed in the ritual circle and how to inscribe them. Thank god Sherry knew how to. I had already informed her about the ritual and told her to study up on it and acquire the needed ingredients. Sherry could still access my mother''s vault that she had opened in Gringotts France. She opened this to use while hiding and the vault could still be used by Sherry. Sherry was using this vault for her needs and when I asked her to buy different things. The British Gringotts vaults were frozen by my parents before they went in to hiding. So money was not a problem.


    I made sure that everything was ready before going to sleep. After waking up I had a shower and checked to see if there any changes due to me reaching the age of 7. I checked my magic core and found that I was right and my magic core had stabilised. Now I could start practising magic. My core size had also increased by a large amount. It was more than double the magic reserves I had yesterday. Now I had a ritual to perform and i knew it would give me another magical boost.


    I made sure that I was in perfect condition for the ritual and went to the ritual room without wearing any clothes as it was specified in the ritual and sat in the centre of the ritual circle. Sherry place the various magical ingredients required in the appropriate place on the ritual circle and then left the room.


    now it was time to perform the ritual. I supplied my magic to the runes placed in front of me to activate the ritual circle and then started chanting. Magic flowed through the runes and completely activated all the runes in the ritual circle. Then there was a bright light as the whole circle glowed with a bright light enclosing me in the light. I was in a meditative position with my eyes closed but I could feel what was going on. After the light enclosed my whole body, suddenly without any warning I felt an unbearable pain coursing through my body. It was as if my blood was burning and wherever the blood, it hurt like hell. I had to bear the pain until I felt that all parts of my body was hurting with even pain without any exceptions. This was to make sure that every cell in my body had activated and it gave a higher chance for the ritual to be successful. Due to my stronger soul I was able to bear the pain until required. I tried to bear the pain for some more time but even with all my will power I could hold on for only a minute and then lost consciousness.

 Chapter 9 - Family Ritual - II

    I woke up after and I could tell it was already night time. I was unconscious for the whole day which was a good sign. My body still retained some of the pain I experienced during the ritual. I looked at the ritual circle and after looking at it, I was over the moon with joy as I could tell that the ritual was successful. From my initial observations, I felt like I was in a whole new body. My blood was cleaned of any defects during the ritual and it showed in my body. My skin was a little fairer. My eyesight had improved and I could clearly see even the grains of dust in the room when I concentrated.


    I called Sherry and when she came I could tell that I had obtained mage sight. I could see a small glow of light inside her body which I guessed was her magic core and this confirmed that I had activated mage sight. Now I had to learn how to control it. Keeping it activated all the time would cause various disturbances in highly magical areas.


    Sherry was overjoyed on hearing that I had activated my mage sight and would now be a powerful master for her. As my power increases hers increases too. I went to take a shower and clean my body while I told Sherry to clean the room and restore it to its previous condition.


    After a shower I looked in the mirror. Overall my body seemed the same but if you looked closely you could see some of my features had changed. My face had changed a little bit and I gained some features that were similar to the photo of my ancestor which I had seen in the Grimoire. My eyes seemed a bit brighter with the mage sight activated but it was visible only when you looked at it up close. I tried to deactivate mage sight by willing it and after a lot of trying it deactivated. The difference in eyes was not noticeable. So I could use the mage sight without attracting any attention.


    My magic reserves which had increased just some time back had increased by a large amount yet again. It had increased by more than double the previous reserves. So now I had more than four times my last week''s magic reserves. Now I had more than enough magic to cast spells wandlessly. Now I could start practising spells and start my studies in Hogwarts subjects. My plan is to fully master subjects till OWL by the time I started Hogwarts. I had 4 years so it was easily possible.


    Physically I felt a bit stronger. My movements were now smoother and I was more flexible. Appearance wise there was not difference and I was thankful for that. The fairer skin was not noticeable. It would have been tough to explain my changes to the matron if there was any and it would have led me to make Sherry confound everyone who have seen my previous appearance, if the changes were drastic. My mind felt sharper and clearer after the ritual. I felt the time needed to master Occlumency had decreased by a considerable amount. It was already quite less due to my stronger soul but now it had decreased more. I felt I could master Occlumency before Hogwarts and that relieved a lot of stress inside me. Before this I was worried about whether I would be able to safeguard my mind from manipulations. Legilimency would need practise on magical people before I master it but with the quicker and sharper mind, even its progress would increase considerably from now on.


    My days were going to be more hectic now with High school and Hogwarts studies added to it. My schedule until now was quite free with only reading books, martial arts and primary schooling. But now it was going to be busier. With Occlumency I did not need to spend much time to spend on my school subjects. I already knew them very well and all that was left was to revise and memorise things which Occlumency was good for. This made it much more manageable.


    After thinking about all these things, I finally noticed that I was hungry as I did not have anything to eat for the whole day. So I went to the dining table and ate the meal which Sherry had already prepared for me. I thanked Sherry and then went to sleep. I had just woken up after the ritual but still was very tired. The next day I cleaned the room I used for the ritual, took some books and then made sure that everything was alright with my body before going to the orphanage. I informed the matron that I was back and went to my room. Now it was time to begin my studies.


    From now all I had to do was study, practice and exercise. There were no other important things left that needed my special attention. All that was needed was for me to study and practise and wait for my Hogwarts letter.

 Chapter 10 - Gringotts Wizarding Bank

    My days passed comfortably exercising and studying. This had lot to do with the fact that I had access to money from my parents through Sherry. If I did not have that I would have had to do part time jobs to make some to meet my needs. Due to my daily full schedule, to meet my energy needs I needed to eat more food which was not available in the Orphanage. I was lucky to have Sherry provide me more food for me after meal time in my room. This made sure that I did not become ill due to over work.


    I would spend some days at my house to relax saying to matron that I was invited to my friend''s house and on those days me and Sherry would spend quality time together talking about my parents and other things. Some days we both will spend our days outside having a picnic with her being disguised as my mother. I introduced her to various muggle attractions like cinema and I liked watching old movies (old for me) with her. I treated her as truly part of my family and she too liked spending time with me.


    I also found time to read up on Gringotts and the services they provide. It was the only bank in the world and they monopolised the industry. I sent Sherry to go to Gringotts and get me their booklet in which they had explained in detail about all their services. She popped and bought back a small book worth 1 Galleon. It was costly but the booklet was larger than I expected. it looked like a small book. I learned a lot about the bank from the book.


    Gringotts had various branches in the world but they were not linked. Each branch was controlled by a Goblin clan. So I could not access my vault in France from England branch of Gringotts. If I had to close the vault in France and transfer the contents to my England vault, I had to go to France empty the vault myself and take the contents and then store it in my England vault. They will not do it for me. They did not even have files on their clients vaults in different branches in various countries. So the goblins in England had no information on my mother''s vault in France which was good in a way as it made sure that the British ministry also did not know about this vault. I could keep the vault as a backup.


    Gringotts was a place where people store their money and important items. There was no interest provided for the money stored in the bank as given in conventional banks as they did not use our money for providing loans or investments. So instead we had to pay them yearly a fixed amount of money for the security they provided for the vaults. Depending upon the amount of security we needed, the price was different. The bank was like a safety deposit box provider. We could close the vault anytime while giving a fee for closure and take everything with us. The goblins kept a measure of the money and items in the vault and wealthy customers were provided with account managers who helped their clients to buy and sell various properties and businesses.


    My vaults were now frozen and it could not be accessed by anyone before I activated them with my blood. The problem was after I activated them, my magical guardian can gain access to all my vaults except the family vaults. The family vaults of big families are the ones with best protections including a blood ward. They also had guidelines for access and only the person having the blood of the family can access it. Even then only the person with the Lord ring can have full access of the vault. Others were limited on what they could take from the vault and even had a limit on amount of money they could take per month and per year. Large withdrawals needed the permission of the Head of the family.


    The big families also had another feature. When a member reaches the age of 11, a trust vault is opened for him/her automatically which contains more than enough money for them to spend in a year and is refilled every year on the birthday of the member till he reaches maturity.


    I had to find a way to keep the hands of Dumbledore out of my other vaults which I knew I had since Sherry told me that my parents had their separate vaults in Gringotts. I already have many ideas but I had to talk to my account manager to confirm my options.


    Gringotts also provided a platform to submit Last Wills and they will execute it on the death of the person. It was not done by everyone. Only few families did this. Most just submitted their wills in the Ministry of Magic.


    Gringotts also did not invest our money. The share system which is being used in the modern mundane world had not made its way into the magical community yet. Every business was controlled by a single person. Since there were no large corporations in the wizarding world, the share system was not needed. The goblins did provide loans but at very high rates. Taking loans from goblins was discouraged and people only took the loans if it was their only chance. They also had a gambling business in the side which was very famous and attracted a lot of people.


    Gringotts did perform the heritage tests like in the fictions but the unclaimed vaults were split between the Goblins and the Ministry after 100 years of inactivity. So no long lost vaults can be found making Harry richest person in the world like in some fan fictions. The heritage test costs 200G which was high to discourage people to try them as people finding their vaults was money lost for goblins and the ministry.


    They also had a Business of warding and curse-breaking which was quite popular. Goblins are said to be the best warders and curse breakers in the wizarding world. Their curse breaking business was more concentrated in Egypt due to the various magical tombs that were found there which had a lot of treasures.

 Chapter 11 - Time-skip and Progress - I

    At the age of 9 I stopped going to the karate dojo. With the help of Legilimency and hard work, I had learnt everything that he had to teach me and I gained a black belt. He was very proud of me and to thank him I participated in a national tournament representing the dojo and won it in under 13 age group. I also used the opportunity to read the minds of various masters and gained some more exercises in karate.


    I thought about whether to study another kind of martial arts but after a lot of research I found that most of them gave similar benefits and the others were not much useful for me. I only wanted a strong body to enable me to have more capacity of magic and also give me more flexible movements. I was not dependant of only physical strength so I did not need to spend more time learning more martial arts which would then lead to me doing more exercises daily. I did not have the time for that. The karate daily exercises were more than enough for me.


    After stopping going to the dojo, I joined a gym to increase my strength and be in shape. Practising in a gym increased my strength in various areas that practising martial arts alone would not achieve. I did not stop practising martial arts, I practised it early morning every day without break as it helped to be in focus the whole day. These two combined, martial arts and gym practise gave me the perfect growth for my body.


    During a search of my parent''s bedroom, I found the wands of my parents. I tried them out and one of them gave a weak response while another one gave an above average response. Both wands were not quite suited for me which disappointed me a little bit but I blamed it on the ritual which activated my family gift and removed all the impurities in me. From Sherry I learned that the one with the better response was my Father''s wand. She did not know about wood and core used and I did not care about that. I decided to use the wand a little to become used to them before Hogwarts. My spell practise was done mostly wandlessly and I only used a wand to understand the movement of magic while using advanced spells. I needed to know that before I could do a spell wandlessly. It felt so easy to do spells using a wand. Only a fraction of the magic required to do the spell wandlessly was required to do the spell. No wonder after becoming depended on using a wand, people are not able to do spells wandlessly. This wand was not my optimum fit too. So I would need even less magic with an optimum wand. I understood from then on that it''s not that people are not able to do wandless magic after becoming dependent on the wand, it is just that the difficult of doing wandless magic was such that most people would give up at the start while others subconsciously don''t want to learn a harder method to do the same spell.


    I also read up on the latest wizarding laws passed and wizarding Etiquette. Most of the laws passed were against other magical creatures like werewolves and vampires. It made them oppressed without any way to find jobs in the wizarding world. I don''t know what is wrong with Dumbledore. He is isolating every community now and expects them to help him during the war with Voldemort. Remus Lupin trying to convince the werewolves was a lost cause from the get go. No progressive laws were passed in recent times. Dumbledore was trying to make a mandatory law to force every British citizen to finish their studies at Hogwarts recently but it had a lot of opposition and I did not think he will be successful. He just wants every wizarding child to be under him so he can mould them properly according to his wishes.


    Today was the day of my 11th birthday. I had achieved all of the goals that I had made for myself to do before starting Hogwarts.


    I had truly mastered Occlumency just a few months back. It was my masterpiece. When a person entered my mind all they would see first was an untrained mind with memories floating around. These memories were the ones that I had created for myself using the memories of my fellow orphans and my class mates. The memories portrayed me as a very studious and paranoid person who takes a lot of time to make a decision. This was what I wanted the wizarding kind to see me as. This was also the part of the mind which would be accessed when I am under the effects of Veritaserum. So I could lie very easily. Deep inside the sea of memories is a door which was hidden using a complex illusion. It was very difficult to find and if a person needed to find it, they needed hours to do it.


    Inside the door was my true mindscape. It was highly protected. After layers of powerful thick shields which contained many traps, it led to a big castle. The traps were of various kinds. Some caused the attack to reflect towards the attacker giving them the same intensity attack back towards their mind. Others caused them to go into endless loop of illusion which trapped their minds in a fantasy world I know of and only way to come out was knowing the story beforehand so it was impossible for people other than me. After all the traps and shields you will come across my last line of defence. Weapons from the modern world like missiles and tanks and fantasy characters like superheroes and anime characters. It was an army no person would ever be stupid enough to face. By some luck if people reached my army, then they will be obliterated at this point. The combined attack will cause the person''s mind to become destroyed and only way for them to wake up is to remove all their memories from birth and start afresh.

 Chapter 12 - Time-skip and Progress - II

    The castle contained rooms which were arranged in an efficient way. I made use of Library management and Computer memory management architecture to design the hallways, rooms and its contents. Each room was a library of memories. There were two important rooms deep in the dungeons of the castle. These two rooms were given even more protection and the entrance to the dungeon was hidden with another complex illusion. One room contained memories of my past life and another contained a backup of important memories of present life.


    The front entrance of the castle led to different hallways. Each hallway had various number of rooms in which similar memories were stored. The different hallways were one for daily life memories, one for martial arts knowledge, one for non-magical life knowledge, one for magical knowledge and another for miscellaneous knowledge. The hallways led to rooms and the rooms contained bookshelves in which the memories were stored. Like the daily life memories hallway led to rooms labelled with a year. Inside the rooms the bookshelves were labelled with month and it stored the memories. Similarly, the magical knowledge hallways led to rooms labelled with different subjects like Charms and inside the room the knowledge of these subject was stored.


    The mindscape was also linked with my magical core. So even if I am unconscious the defences will be active. It truly was a masterpiece. An added advantage of hiding my true mindscape it that when a person memory charms me, the memories removed will be the untrained balls of memories outside without affecting my original memories.


    My Legilimency ability has also improved but not as much as Occlumency due to lack of wizard targets. I can now scan and look through an untrained min very quickly and without their knowledge. I could surface scan their memories with passive eye contact or I could wandlessly cast on the people without their knowledge and look through their memories deeply. Both actions did not bring attentions to myself. Now all I needed to practice is going through shielded mind without getting detected. It needed Hogwarts and the free Guinea pigs it provided for my practice.


    My magic has grown quite strong by now with the daily practise and my nightly exercise of depleting and replenishing it. I can do fifth year spells wandlessly so I can guess I now have magical reserves equal to average 17-year-old wizards. It reached this level due to the aid of the ritual otherwise I expected my reserves to be equal to a 15-year-old wizard only at this point.


    I had completed my higher secondary schooling just a few days back and had given my A-levels. My school life was spent with attending a year with a batch and skipping a grade every year. So I started with year 7 at the age of 7. At the yearend I was given an option to write year 8 exams too as the teachers had seen than I was more than able to write them. So next year I attended year 9 at the age of 8 and so on until this year I finished year 13, the final grade of higher secondary school. Results were expected in a month''s time and I was sure that I aced all my subjects. Due to my years being so, I did not make any friends in high school. Others also avoided me because of their jealousy. No bullying though as everyone knew I was physically strong too as some unlucky bullies found out on the first day of my high school.


    Coming to my magical studies, I completed my magical studies till OWL level in all subjects that are taught at Hogwarts. The books for the other subjects were not present in my library and as I was not in a rush to study them, I did not buy the books. I could wait for Hogwarts and its library. I could all the spells with wand and wandlessly. I had memorised the etiquette book. I had also practised potions after converting the room I used for the ritual as a potion room. I had practised all potions till OWL level until I could perfectly make them without any errors.


    I also spent time practising writing with a quill. There were many self-inking quills available in house which were used by parents. I felt it was a waste of time but still practised writing with it. My plan is to use quills in classes while writing ?ssignments with the proper fountain pen as it was much simpler to use. The quill was too thin to even hold properly.


    I can now control my mage sight flawlessly. I can activate and deactivate the sight instantaneously without any concentration required. I also found out that I can see if a person had done dark magic. This I found out after I observed many random wizards walking along the streets of London. I don''t know much about dark magic but after it is done, it leaves dark black spots in your magical core as that''s what I could see. I need to read up more on the subject to find out about the reasons, effects and the ways to remove the dark black spots in the magic core.


    I also had opened an account in Barclays Bank. It had a lot of money which I gained through scholarships and wining various competitions. It contained 2500 pounds and I was proud of it as it was money I earned with my own efforts and not inherited.

 Chapter 13 - The Hogwarts Letter and Introduction

    Today was the day I was preparing for, the day my Hogwarts letter would come and my worry free life would be over. There were no birthday celebrations in the orphanage so I was in my room reading some books. At around noon there was a knock on the door of my room. I spent all my free time alone coped up in my room and did not play with any of my fellow orphans so normally no one comes to look for me in my room. Therefore, I was excited since I knew it meant that the moment I was waiting for had come and it was time for Hogwarts shopping. I used all my occlumency to control myself and opened the door. The person who came was the Orphanage matron.


    Her face was full of joy and she said, "Charles, you have been invited to attend a special boarding school for gifted students. I am so happy for you. Now that you have completed high school, I expected this to happen and I think you will get many more invites from a lot of famous universities. This looks like this school is for people like you from what I could understand. The deputy headmistress has come to personally invite you. Good Luck. I will be in my office if you need me for anything."


    I thanked her and she left. When she left a woman wearing strange robes with a pointed hat greeted me. I quickly recognized her as the Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts, Professor Minerva McGonagall. I was happy she came instead of an owl with a letter as it would be very hard to explain an owl coming to deliver a letter to me to a building full of non-magical people who will certainly notice it. It''s just asking for trouble and all my previous efforts to fit in as a non-freak will be all in vain.


    I activated my mage sight and looked at her. She had strength greater than all the wizards I have seen on the streets till now. She did not have any black spots in her magic core so she was purely light wizard. I knew she was blindly loyal to Dumbledore and I would have to be careful around her. All the happenings during this afternoon will be relayed to the Headmaster and I did not want to make him suspect my strength.


    I invited her to come in and sit on the chair and asked "Hello, I am Charles Falken. Which school are you coming from? I was not expecting to receive an invitation from any school at this point in my education (I was already past that but I kept the information a secret for now)."


    She shut the door behind her and asked, "Before we began, have you ever noticed anything strange happening while you were in an emotionally distressed state?"


    To tell the truth, I haven''t experienced it as I started controlling my magic from a very young age. This cannot be done by anyone else as I could do it due to being an ?du?t and having the patience to sit down and meditate all the time. So there was no chance of accidental magic and I was never in any case of emotional distress for me to use magic. I decided to tell the truth as it was the most possible scenario for an orphan who would not gain anything while throwing tantrums in an orphanage.


    So I said, "No. I don''t remember anything strange happening around me. It could be because of the fact that I was never in an emotionally distressed state in my life. But why does it matter here?"


    "So you have not performed any accidental magic in your life. It is not a rare case but still uncommon." She said but seeing my confused face she continued, "Perhaps a demonstration is in order to convince you about magic" And then she went on to turn my table into a pig and then turned it back.


    I stood there doing my best to act surprised with wide eyes and open jaws while internally I was laughing and thinking of all the animals in the world a Pig? I think I would have enjoyed a tiger more.


    I asked, "How did you do that?"


    She replied, "That Mr.Falken is magic. There are many people who have this gift and they reside in a hidden world of magic. You are one of them."


    I nodded and asked, "But how are you sure that I have this gift since I have never done any magic?"


    She replied, "Your name and address were given by an enchanted quill which is designed to find magical children born in Britain so that we can introduce them to the wizarding world. So I am sure that you are a wizard."


    After that was done she quickly briefed me on the wizarding world and Hogwarts. She then gave me my Hogwarts letter. I made the appropriate joyful expression on my face and read its contents. Well it was the standard issue first-year Hogwarts letter, same as the books.


    Going over the letter, I asked the professor, "But professor, how am I going to buy all the supplies. I am an orphan with not much money on me." I did my best to show a sad agonizing look on my face.


    "Well, you see Mr.Falken, you don''t have to worry about that as your parents were magical too. So they have a vault in the wizarding bank which can provide for all your needs. You don''t need to worry about money as you have more than enough." She said.


    I showed a shocked and earnest expression on my face and asked, "My parents were magical? Did you know them? Do you know if I have any godparents or relatives alive who could tell me about my parents?"


    She replied, "Yes I taught your parents at Hogwarts. They were two very bright students. They did not belong to my house so I do not know much about them. As far as I know your parent''s closest friends are dead and you don''t have any relatives alive. There was a war a decade back and many people died in it. We did not know of your existence until we saw your letter. No one even knew that your mother was pregnant with you."


    She then hurriedly stood up and said, "I am in a hurry, so let''s go and buy your supplies."


    I think she did not want me to ask more questions about my family. I noticed that she did not say anything about my political status or me being rich. So I can confirm my hypothesis that Dumbledore were trying to rip me off and she was a part of the scheme. Well they could try all they want. This confirmed to me that she was not a good witch as portrayed in the books. I already suspected it as otherwise most of the things that took place in Hogwarts would not have happened.

 Chapter 14 - Diagon Alley and Wand

    She started to leave so I quickly informed the matron and followed her outside. Ducking in an abandoned alley, she gestured me to take her hand. When I did so, without any warning she apparated, taking me along with her.


    I felt an unpleasant feeling of getting stretched and squished and then the scenery changed. We were now standing outside a dingy old bar, which I presumed was the Leaky Cauldron. She walked inside and I followed her. We then proceeded towards the back of the bar to a small room. Inside the room, she tapped the brick wall with her wand a few times and the wall shifted to form an arched opening. I quickly memorised the sequence of the bricks and looked towards the opening.


    What greeted me now was a scenery of a crowded market filled with weird stalls and shops.


    "This is Diagon ally, where all wizarding supplies can be bought from." she said and proceeded to take me with her through the crowded street. We stopped in front of a snow-white building which was the tallest building in the Alley. Standing in front of the building on both sides of the gate were two Gobilns holding spears taller than them. From what I have read all they care about is making money and do not meddle in the affairs of wizards. They will not care if I am ripped off by others. Even if you give respect to them they will not care and not respect you back. They only respect the strong and the ones who can help them get a lot of profit. They are a warrior race which controls the banking of the whole world. It was not a good combination.


    McGonagall stood in front of the building and said, "This is the only wizarding bank in the whole world and it is run by the goblins. We will first go inside and collect the money required for your shopping."


    We went inside and walked towards a goblin teller.


    She said to the teller, "Mr.Falken here needs the key to his vault."


    The teller looked at me and replied, "Put a drop of your blood on this parchment to confirm your identity." He gestured towards a parchment and a knife.


    I hesitated and took the knife and made a wound at the tip of my finger and let a drop of blood fall on the parchment. When I removed the knife the wound healed magically. The parchment glowed but it was snatched from my hands before I could see what was written on the parchment by the teller.


    He looked at the parchment and replied, "Your identity is confirmed. Here is the key to your vault. Vault number 704."


    After that he pushed a small golden key into my hand. I don''t know where the key came from.


    After that we were guided by a goblin towards a cart like the ones in mines. After we were seated we went at a high speed towards my vault number 704. It felt like a roller coaster ride but was slower. I did not understand why some wizards hated this ride. I liked it very much.


    From what I read about the bank, the lower the number, the better the security measures and protection. So my trust vault had not so good security measures. The speed of the cart was not as high as I expected it to be. It was high but not high as the roller coasters I have ridden in my past life.


    When we reached the vault, the goblin asked for my key and after I passed it to him, he opened the vault. The inside of the vault was lit in golden light by the small mountains of galleons present in it. There were some Sickles and Knuts inside there too.


    The professor looked at me and explained, "The gold coin is called a Galleon, the silver coin a sickle and the bronze coin a Knut. A Galleon is worth 17 Sickles. A Sickle is worth 29 Knuts. While a Galleon is worth 5 pounds. You can do the calculations."


    I asked how much money was required for the shopping and she informed me normally only 70 Galleons in required but if I needed good quality goods then take extra.


    When I asked how will I carry these large number of coins, the goblin beside me showed me a bottomless pouch and sold it to me for 2 Galleons. I scooped up around 150 Galleons and stored it inside the pouch.


    When we exited the bank she said, "Let''s go and buy your wand first. We will buy other things on the list after that."


    We moved towards a small building in the Alley. She told me to enter alone and buy my first wand on my own. Said that it was a tradition to do so.


    I entered the shop while activating my mage sight. I knew from the stories that Ollivander liked to come up suddenly and scare the children who came to buy their wands. I did not want him to sneak up on me for his own good. If I was suddenly jumped. My reflexes would cause me to give him a round house kick on his face and I did not want that to happen. With my mage sight I could avoid this as I will already know his position.


    So as I entered the shop I saw him hiding near the door and I could tell that he was disillusioned. I walked to the counter and acted like looking for him. I sensed an intrusion in my mind and he went through it to find my name. He could only go through my made up memories. I did not show any outward reaction but I was very angry due to his blatant attempt to read my mind.


    He came up from behind me and I and said, "Welcome Mr. Falken to my shop." He was surprised when I showed no reaction to his sudden appearance. I looked at him and calmly nodded. He then went on to tell me about my parent''s wands. I was prepared to wait for a long time, trying on many different wands before finding a match. But I unexpectedly got a match on my second try. When I touched the wand I felt as if the wand connected to my core and I felt my magic flowing to my fingertips fluidly. I concentrated and controlled the output to an average value as I did not want him to know about my strength. If I showed an unnatural reaction, then he could report it to Dumbledore. Sparks came out of the wand but it was not eye catching due me restricting my magic. I felt it was not perfect match but it was still good enough. I needed a wand crafter for a perfect match but it was not important for now. I can buy another one after my maturity.


    "12.5 inches'' ebony wand with a dragon heartstring of a Hungarian Horntail as a core. A powerful wand best for transfiguration. That will be 7 Galleons, Mr. Falken." Ollivander said.


    I also bought a dragon hide wand holster which can be made invisible and a wand maintenance kit before leaving the shop. I am not going to put my wand in my pockets as it is too inconvenient. Keeping a 13-inch-long wand inside your pockets? You will not be able to even walk properly.

 Chapter 15 - The Hogwarts Contract - I

    When I came out of the Ollivander''s wand shop, I found the professor waiting for me but it looked like she was preparing to leave in a hurry.


    She smiled at me and said, "Congratulations on getting your wand. It seems we have to cut short our trip as I am needed urgently in the school. It is still school year and there are lots of work pending. I can come back and pick you up after school year ends and when I meet some muggle born students. Let me take you back now."


    I replied, "It is ok. But you don''t have to bring me here again to shop. I know the place already, so I can come back at any time before school starts and buy the things in the list. I like doing my shopping on my own anyway. Let''s go back. I need some time to process what I have seen today."


    I was relieved. If she followed me then I would not have been able to buy all the things according to my requirements. I needed some pretty expensive things to meet my needs of my studies. I also need to buy things that match my high standings in the society.


    She then took my arm and we apparated back to the alley near my orphanage. She then followed me back to my room and then closed the door and said, "We need to finish some formalities before I can go back. Please sign this contract. This is just a standard contract that all students or their guardians are supposed to sign before they begin their education at Hogwarts. It should have been done by your parents when you were born but it was not so you can sign it yourself." She then passed me a quill and a lengthy parchment.


    I took them from her hands and started reading the contract. The contract contained many conditions such as you will have to complete all 7 years at Hogwarts and cannot change schools without the Headmasters permission. It also specified that I allow them to collect the tuition fees from my vault before the start of each year. What surprised me was that the fees were even more than what were supposed to muggleborns pay. They were thinking that I am some 11-year-old boy who will carelessly sign these papers. It also said that I appoint the Headmaster as my Magical Guardian.


    What surprised me more was that there were some lines hidden using magic. I could feel magic on the paper. I think this was done specifically for me since ?du?t wizards would also be able to detect the hidden words in the contract. I activated my mage sight to see if I was able to read the words and I found out that I could. In it was written that I give complete access to all my vaults to my magical guardian till I gain my maturity. It was also written that my Guardian would be allowed to make decisions like signing contracts for me and resolve issues related to me without asking my opinion on it. It also required that I would not be able to tell what was written in this contract to others at the cost of my magic and life.


    I looked at the contract for some more time and said, "Sorry Professor I would not be able to sign this contract without consulting a lawyer. This looks like a legal contract and I would like to understand everything written on it before I sign. I don''t know why my fees are so high as even boarding schools will not cost half of this in the non-magical world. There are many other things I don''t understand so I would like to consult a lawyer before I make a decision."


    She was a bit shocked after hearing me, I think she thought I would blindly sign it like all other people do. She said, "I ?ssure you Mr. Falken this is the normal fees that all students pay for their education at Hogwarts and the contract does not include anything important enough to consult a lawyer."


    I did not want to offend her as I would have to attend her classes for 7 years in Hogwarts but she was not giving me any other choice. I looked at her judgingly and said, "I am afraid I cannot sign this without consulting a law firm. I don''t know how the magical world works and how contracts in magical world work. I could be signing my life away as a slave in this contract and I would not know. I have read a lot of books were things like that happen."


    She tried again and said, "We would not do anything to harm you Mr. Falken. The contract is a normal one and we would not do anything to harm you."


    I looked at her judgingly and said, "Do you know anything about me Professor? Did you ask the matron about me before you met me?" She looked confused and shook her head.


    I continued, "Then you should have so that we did not have to play a game like this. You know that I have completed my high school education in the non-magical world. This means that I have completed my school education which is normally completed at the age of 18. So you should stop treating me like a 11-year-old boy because I know how the world works. I know how people like to trick orphans since they do not have anyone guiding them and since I have a large inheritance from my parents I know that I am a prime target. So I am not going to sign any letter without consultation. So you can stop trying to cheat me and give me the real contract."

 Chapter 16 - The Hogwarts Contract - II

    She looked embarrassed on being caught and said, "You are a smart one aren''t you. Give the contract back I will give you another one which will please you."


    I smiled and said, "I read a lot professor. Also the contract looked odd and had a lot of blank spaces between paragraphs. Since this is the magical world I think you hid some lines using magic too. It could have said I am giving away everything I have to you for free. If it like that then I would call you and the Headmaster evil and greedy professor. I hope it was not."


    I saw a trace of anger in her eyes when I called the Headmaster evil. She quickly calmed herself and denied my allegations. She then gave me a new one which did not have any hidden lines but the fees were now equal to muggle born ones. What I did not like was the headmaster would be made my magical guardian with full control over my dealings.


    I had read of a new law that was passed in the Wizengamont recently by families who were alarmed when they found out what happened to the orphans due to the actions of their Magical guardians. They did not want their children to have the same fate. So they passed a law which made it possible for the kids of Noble families to make their Magical Guardians only have limited power over them. The magical guardians can act on their own only during life threatening emergencies otherwise both the child and guardians can discuss things like contracts but the final decision will be in the hands of the child. They will still have access over the vaults but the family vaults had its own protections so the families did not mind it.


    I will not sign this contract without the contract following the above law.


    I told her, "By looking at the people in Diagon Alley I don''t think they still would be able to pay this tuition fees for their children. It is still high. But my main problem is the guardian thing. I do not know the headmaster and I have not even heard anything about him and after what I have experienced, I will not be foolish enough to give him control over me. So I will look visit a law firm tomorrow and see my options before I make a decision. Maybe I could hire tutors as I think that may be cheaper."


    I knew that I would not be her favourite student after this but they left me no choice. I knew I was safe due to my status and they would not be able to do any harm to me without bringing attention to themselves so they will not take any drastic actions.


    She tried arguing but I did not give her an inch. She started telling me all about Dumbledore which bored me a lot. About that I said, "So you are saying that a person who has 3 full time jobs which should not be allowed as it means he will not be able to concentrate on one thing, is also the Magical Guardian of all the muggle born and orphan students. Are you people insane? He is also more than 100 years old. I don''t know how he is able to manage everything as all the jobs he has is not even related. International politics, domestic politics, headmaster of a school and a guardian of hundreds of children. It is not possible for a single person to handle all this even if he is called the next coming of Merlin. I would be mad to make him my Guardian."


    She was mad after hearing me say all this but she knew what I was talking about since the work of headmaster was mainly done by her. She finally sighed and replaced the contract with another one which she wrote up in front of me. She then said, "Ok. This is the contract that should have been given to you. You still have to have a magical guardian but a law was passed recently which made it possible for you to make him have only limited decision making ability over you. This is your final option. You can have a lawyer look at it but you have no other choice. If you do not agree to sign it then your magic will be bound and your memories about magic removed. Make your decision."


    I looked at the new contract. It was as she said. In the contract it was written that Headmaster would be my Guardian but would have to follow the law passed recently. The law was specified in the contract. The fees were now equal to the Pure blood fees. I went through the contract thoroughly and did not find anything else that would cause me any harm. I also activated my mage sight to check.


    I smiled at her and said, "This contract looks satisfactory and I don''t think there is anything wrong with it. Since I don''t know which law firm to trust, I will have to trust you and believe that this is the best offer I can get. So I do not think I need waste my time to see a lawyer. I will sign it."


    I signed the contract and it glowed for an instant specifying the contact was made. She took the contract from my hands without any smile. She then gave me the ticket for the Hogwarts express and left without giving me any directions or any other instructions. She told me she would see me next in school and said that she hoped I was not part of her house. She was not happy with me and maybe not giving directions and giving me the much needed instructions about the magical world was some kind of a petty revenge by her but I did not care as I knew everything that I should know about the magical world from the books I have read from my library.

 Chapter 17 - Visiting Gringotts Again

    I did not relax as I needed to do an important thing before the end of the day. I needed to safeguard my vaults before Dumbledore gets his hands on them. If he empties and closes the other vaults before I even know about them, I would not know that I was ripped off by him. So I need to do something about the vaults as soon as possible. He had already become my guardian so he could do so even today. So I was in a rush.


    I called Sherry and told her to pop me in front of the Bank. I entered the bank and went towards a goblin sitting in front of a counter.


    I stood in front of him and asked, "I would like to meet my family account manager please."


    The goblin looked down at me from his high chair and asked, "What is your name wizard?"


    I replied, "My name is Charles Falken."


    He signalled for another goblin and they conversed between themselves in gobbledygook after which he told me to follow the other goblin. I followed him silently through the twists and turns until finally, we were standing in front of a door. He told me to enter and I compiled. I saw an elder goblin sitting behind a table as I came inside.


    "Hello, I am Charles Falken. Are you my family account manager?" I asked the elder goblin.


    "Yes I am young one. I am Gornuk, the Falken account manager." The goblin grumbled, "Why do you want to meet me at such a young age. You know that you can claim the lordship only on your 17th birthday right? But before we go into the reason let me check if you are who you say you are. Cut your finger and let five drops of blood drip into this bottle."


    I did so without a second thought. I cut my finger with no hesitation allowing five drops of blood to flow into the bottle. The would healed after I removed the knife magically.


    The Goblin poured the contents of the bottle onto the special bit of parchment and chanted something. The parchment lit up brightly before dimming down revealing words.


    Name: Charles Daniel Falken


    Date of Birth: 4 June 1977


    Father: Daniel Robert Falken (pure-blood)


    Heritage: Most Ancient and Noble House of Falken


    Vaults: 54 ¨C 1,035,264G and other items. ¨C Family vault


    226 ¨C 40,530G and other items.


    425 ¨C 35,072G and other items


    704 ¨C 4850G 100S 100K ¨C Trust vault


    I looked at the results and was more than satisfied with the ?ssets I owned.


    After looking at the results, the goblin gave a toothy grin and said, "You are who you claim to be. Good for you or else you would have faced some serious consequences. So why did you want to meet me?"


    I replied, "I would like to have my heir ring and I also wanted to close two of the vaults in the list and merge it into the family vault."


    He gave me a knowing grin and said, "A smart one aren''t you. You can close the two vaults but you have no access of the family vault right now. So you cannot transfer the items into it. Closing vaults also costs 5% of the money present inside it. And here is the heir ring of the Falken Family."


    He took out a ring box. It contained two rings inside it. He took the smaller ring from it and passed it to me. I saw a beautiful ring with a picture of a falcon on it with "Vif, courageux, fier" (Spirited, courageous, proud) written under it. I put the ring on and it flashed with light but the light soon died out.


    The Heir ring had many functions from what I have read. The most important function is to detect and record Legilimency attempts. It could not block the attempts though but I could use the recorded magical signature as evidence to sue anyone who tries to read my mind. Another useful function was to detect potions in my food and drinks which would come in handy at Hogwarts. the ring also gave me the political power of House Falken which was a lot and would make people think twice before taking any action against me. There were other functions too but were not very important.


    "Congratulations Heir Falken. The ring has accepted you as the heir. So what have you decided about the vaults?" said Gornuk.


    I replied, "I would like to close the two vaults and I would like to give access to my vaults to my house elf."


    He replied, "I will deduct the vault closure fees from the vault now and you have 1 day to empty the vaults. Your personal house elf has access to all your vaults. You do not need to provide any special permission. Is that all? You will not have access to the properties belonging to you without you gaining the Lordship first. So this will be our last meeting for some years."


    I thanked him and told him I wanted to empty the vaults right now. He called for a goblin and told him to lead me to my vaults. I followed him and we reached the first vault via the mine cart. After the goblin opened the vault I say piles of gold coins on one side and items on other side. I called Sherry and told her what I was here to do. She popped back with an empty trunk and enlarged the space inside it. Then with a snap of her fingers the things inside the vaults were stored inside the trunk quickly. She told me to call her back when I reached the other vault as she did not want to travel in the cart. I checked the vault with my mage sight to see if I had missed anything. Assured that nothing was missed I told the goblin to take me to the other vault. I proceeded to follow the same method as the first vault and the second vault was also emptied.


    I then told Sherry to pop into my trust vault and remove 4000G and store it inside the trunk. Rest of the money can be used for paying Hogwarts tuition fees and emergency fund for my guardian.


    After everything was taken care of, I exited the bank. It was late so I decided to do shopping some other day. I was not in a rush. I called Sherry and she popped me near the orphanage. I informed the matron that I had joined the school and she was very happy for me. She asked me about the school but I said that the school was located in Scotland and was very secretive. The only people who got in were through an invitation like mine. She congratulated me and told me to go and rest as I had a very busy day.

 Chapter 18 - Shopping

    I went to my room and called Sherry. I asked her opinion on where to store the things I had taken from the vaults. I asked her if I should store it in the French vault. The only problem was that I had to go to France to take control of the vault as it was still under my mother''s name, and only then would I be able to add items to the vault. I could still store money there without taking control of the vault. Sherry was not strong enough to pop me to France so I had to travel on my own which was difficult. She told me the vault had the lowest security and it was not good to put this much money in that vault and since I had not yet taken control of the vault, it was even less secure.


    Since I could not store the money in a vault, I decided to do some investing. I had a lot of free money in my hands and I also knew which companies would perform well in the future. The vault in France had nearly 15,000G which was enough for me till I take control of the family vault so I could do anything with the nearly 80,000G I had in my hand. The items from the vault could be stored inside my house without any problems. They mostly included some weapons, books, jewellery, etc.


    After making up my mind I went to sleep. The next day after waking up and completing my morning exercises, I informed the matron that I was going out and went to my house. I decided to postpone my Hogwarts shopping until I finished my investment plan. First I told Sherry to go to Gringotts and exchange about 79,000G into pounds. She took the money from yesterday''s trunk and put it into a new trunk and popped away. She came back with the exchanged 395,000 pounds.


    After that I started planning with Sherry. I decided to open an investment account in my name itself. It would cause the authorities some attention due to the large amount of money under a child''s name but I had the help of magic to avoid the unwanted attention.


    So me and Sherry disguised went to the Barclays bank. It was very easy to open an investment account under a 11-year old''s name with some confounding spells from Sherry. As per my instructions she also added a mild Notice me not charm on my age and date of birth in the files. This would avoid me any unwanted attention for now. Then we went to an investment broker and I bought the stocks for famous tech companies which I knew would make it big in the future but were now only growing like Microsoft, Apple, Nokia, Sony, etc. Companies like eBay, Amazon and Google were not yet founded but I could wait. I decided to buy their stocks when they were at their lowest which I knew was when there was a huge stock market clash somewhere around the year 2000. I signed the papers, finished the formalities and went back to my orphanage.


    The next few days I went through my parent''s things to decide on what all I needed to buy before going to Hogwarts. I matched the books in the list with the ones in the library to find which all new books I did not own. I did not want to buy books that I already had with me. It was a waste of money and I did not have any problems with using the second hand books. After looking through the books I found out that I needed to buy only two new ones. The potions and DADA books. I can guess that these books would be a downgrade from my parent''s books but I still had to buy them.


    I needed a new trunk as the trunk my parents used were standard school trunks while what I needed was a high quality trunk with various compartments for my things. I also needed to buy a new potions kit and quills. The old ones in my house would cause judging looks from my classmates due to their condition since I had used it for these 4 years and were not in a presentable condition.


    I did not need to buy a pet as I could not have one in the orphanage, it was against the orphanage rules. I also did not need one at present.


    In the end I had a very small list. New clothes, a new trunk, 2 books, potions kit, quills, parchments and other miscellaneous things.


    So after I had planned everything, one-day early morning I left the orphanage with Sherry. She popped me to Diagon Alley and went back as I did not want people to know I had an elf. My first stop was Madam Malkin''s. I asked for a standard set of Hogwarts robes in good quality material. I did not go overboard with Acromantula silk as I felt it was a waste of money and I will soon outgrow the robes. An ?ssistant took my measurements. I told her to show me the list of charms that could be added to the robes and she gave me a list. I looked went through the list and selected the charms I needed on my robes like self-cleaning, wrinkle free, self-sizing, etc. After noting down everything and payment, she told me that my clothes would be ready in 4 hours and I could wait there if I wanted.


    I left the shop and went towards the Trunk store. At the store I bought a Dragon hide trunk with four compartments. One for potions supplies, One for library, One for clothes and another for miscellaneous items. I also told the shop keeper to add a secret compartment which had various enchantments and protections to hide it. I told him to add most of the normal enchantments to the trunk along with anti-theft runes with password lock, feather light rune and the rune for shrinking and enlarging the trunk with a tap of the wand so that I could carry the trunk in my pocket. I could not go around London dragging a large trunk along with me. I then told him to inscribe my inscribed my initials CDF and the Falken Family insignia on the trunk. He told me it would be ready in half and hour so I waited as I needed I needed the trunk to do my other shopping. I did not want to carry the things I bought in my hands and the trunk would help a lot to store them. After 30 min I collected the brand new trunk and paid for it. It was a bit costly but worth it.


    My next stop was the shop named Flourish and Blotts. From there I bought the two books I needed on my list. I did not need any other books for extra reading as I could read them from the Hogwarts Library. I stored the two books in the library compartment of the trunk.


    Next I went to a stationary store to buy self-inking quills, parchments and other such items listed in the letter. I even bought a Dicta quill so that I could record the lectures easily. Going to the Cauldron shop I bought a cauldron of better quality than specified as I would need it to practice much higher level of potions than the standard Hogwarts syllabus. I bought two sets of potion ingredients and stored all the items in the trunk. The store clerk recommended to me to buy books on basic potion practices as the Hogwarts professor was a poor teacher but I declined it as I had already read much more advanced books on potions. I did thank her for the recommendation though and said I already had a similar book at home.


    After that I went around the Alley looking for things that may catch my interest and bought some miscellaneous items. I did not buy a Quidditch broom as I had no interest in the sport and I did not like the idea of flying on a broom. To me it looked weird and seemed uncomfortable. Quidditch was a game which was just thrilling to watch from the side-lines and nothing else. No person with a touch of common sense would risk his life in a game which could very much lead to death for the enjoyment of others. It was also a sport in which the seekers were more important as they decided the winner in nearly all matches. I felt bad for the other players on the team. All their hard work in scoring and saving goals will be wasted if the enemy seeker catches the snitch. I liked Football as a sport more.

 Chapter 19 - Final Preparations

    Now my shopping was complete except for the wait for my robes to be ready. Since there was still a lot of time before they were ready, I decided to finish one of the things I had in my list of things to be done before Hogwarts. That is getting immunized for all magical illnesses. Some of the diseases like Dragon Pox was very dangerous and could lead to death.


    Professor McGonagall should have informed me about it but I think she left it out as petty revenge or she may have forgotten due to the hurry she was in. I am not sure if muggleborns were informed about it but from the things I have read about this word I can say that they were not. It did not matter to them if muggle borns caught diseases like Dragon pox and died. In case of Harry Potter, Dumbledore did not tell Hagrid to do that and Hagrid only followed what Dumbledore asked him to do and nothing more. He did this as the visit will lead to finding about the abuse Harry went through at his aunt''s house.


    So as to not come back again another day and since I had free time, I went to St. Mungo''s as it was nearby. I reached the department store Purge and Dowse, Ltd after a short walk. The store acted as the hidden entrance to the hospital. From the outside the store was very small but I knew that the magical building was huge from the inside and had many floors.


    After entering the store what welcomed me was a large reception area. The place was very crowded as it was the only Magical Hospital in Britain and everyone came here to get treated. I asked the lady at the information booth for directions to get immunized and she directed me towards a healer''s room in the ground floor itself. I spent a total of 1 hour at the hospital getting all immunizations. The time also included the time I spent waiting for my turn.


    I still had some time so I spent it in muggle London buying some daily wear for myself. These clothes provided much better comfort than the ones sold in Diagon Alley.


    When it was time, I went to Diagon Alley, collected my Hogwarts robes and then went to a secluded corner from where Sherry popped me to my Orphanage.


    I had a lot of time before I left for Hogwarts so I spent time practising spells with my new wand. It was so easy to do spells with this wand. The NEWT level spells which I had difficulty to do earlier even while using my father''s wand could now be done easily. I was now nearly on same level with wand magic and wandless magic. The only thing limiting wandless magic was the magic reserves required. It required much more magic nearly 5 times to do magic wandlessly. I had no problems with non-verbal magic as I spent most of my time doing spells non-verbally. I had to do this as I could not shout spells in the orphanage or people would think I had finally cracked from all that studying and call the doctors.


    Since I was not informed that I could not perform magic outside school, I freely practised with my new wand. I also checked the wand with mage sight and did not find any tracker on it. From this I can deduce that, the tracker is placed on our wands when we enter Hogwarts for the first time via the Black lake. I can be sure of it as otherwise the children who use legacy wands from their family members would not have trackers on their wands and would not be monitored.


    Now when I said practising with my new wand, I meant practising to do spells incorrectly not trying to do more spells. Doing spells with this new wand was so many times easier than doing wandlessly that I could do them without any concentration. To make sure I do not attract more attention to myself after the contract drama, I had to make sure that I performed poorly in magic practical. So I had to practice so that I could act making mistakes flawlessly. I still had to do well in theory par as they already knew I was a prodigy and doing badly on theory would cause suspicion.


    I also started reading more Ancient Runes. I felt that the subject had more scope to develop new things. It was required to design so many things and it was also the base using which I could make electronic goods work in highly magical area. The things that could be done using runes were numerous so this was my favourite subject.


    Another thing I spent time on was the disillusionment charm. I needed to perfect this charm for my daily activities in Hogwarts. I needed this so that I could move around Hogwarts after Curfew without being seen. It was a NEWT level spell and I was trying to master it to such a level that I can become invisible instantaneously when I cast the spell on myself.


    I asked Sherry if she could come to Hogwarts and stay with me. She replied that she could come to Hogwarts but she had to follow some rules otherwise she would be banned from ever coming to Hogwarts. I could not order her to harm any student or a teacher. I could not tell her to do something that is against the rules of the school. I could not tell her to take things that did not belong to me and bring them to me so I could not tell her to fetch books belonging to teachers. There were some other rules too but they were not important. The other elves will not know she belongs to me, just that she belongs to a student. Even the Headmaster will not know she belongs to me. So we decided she will come with me to Hogwarts and help the elves when she was free.


    Another thing not possible was she could not pop me to and from Hogwarts. It was not possible due to Hogwarts wards restricting it. This would have compromised the security of Hogwarts so it was good and it did not disappoint me much.


    Sherry''s presence would save me a lot of trouble. She could act as my spy in Hogwarts and spy on my targets. Since this was not causing harm to anyone and not against the rules, she could do it. There were limitations in where she could go and not go but she would still be helpful.


    The days passed and the day I began my Hogwarts life was coming closer and closer. I received my A-level result during this time. I had aced all my classes. It caused me some publicity due to my young age and I had gotten a lot of offers from different universities. I politely declined them saying that I did not want to join university right now at this age and would contact them when I was ready to attend college. They accepted as even they too felt that I was too young to attend classes with ?du?t students.

 Chapter 20 - Dumbledore

    While I was making my final preparations for my school life at Hogwarts in London, far away in at Hogwarts in the Scottish Highlands, a meeting was taking place between the Headmaster and the Deputy Headmistress. It was the day after I was introduced to Hogwarts and the magical world by McGonagall.


    <No POV>


    Inside the Headmasters room, two people were sitting across a large table. The Headmaster, Dumbledore looked in a jolly mood but the Deputy Headmistress, McGonagall was not mood to play around.


    Dumbledore "So Minerva what was the thing you wanted to inform me yesterday. I was busy the whole day with work at the Ministry. Cornelius wanted to ask my opinion on some things. I wonder how he was chosen for the post as he is incompetent and needs someone to point him in everything."


    Minerva "It is you who wanted him as the Minister due to the very same reason. So don''t complain that your work load has increased due to it. I wanted to talk to you about Mr. Falken. I visited him yesterday to give him his Hogwarts letter and introduce him to the wizarding world."


    Dumbledore "Yes. The orphan heir to a rich and powerful family, the one we found existed only last week. So what was so special about him that you disturbed me yesterday?"


    Minerva "The usual scheme we play on rich orphans did not work on him. He caught me on the act. I regret not finding more about him before I tried our scheme on him as I found out later that he was a smart child. He is well known in muggle London as a Genius. He has already finished muggle schooling which means that he could be considered an ?du?t in the muggle world and is miles above any muggle born genius we have ever had in Hogwarts. He refused to sign the contract until he was satisfied with the writing on it. He even guessed there might be some hidden lines on the contract which might be bad for him. I had to include the damn law which you hated and tried to stop from passing before he even considered signing it."


    She then narrated everything that happened yesterday to Dumbledore.


    Dumbledore thought for some time. His mind was spinning into action trying to decide his next plan of action.


    Dumbledore "What else can you tell me about him which should be very important in deciding what to do with him? Let me check was Garrick has to say about him. I had reminded him to play close attention to Mr. Falken when he came in for his wand."


    Dumbledore went through the piles of letters on his desk until he found the letter he was looking for. After opening it he started to read the contents of the letter.


    Minerva "He acts and talks like an ?du?t. The way he argued with me shows that he was smart and cunning but more inclined to smart side. Another thing which you will be happy to know is that he has never had any instance of accidental magic in his life."


    Dumbledore "That is indeed a good thing. It is also confirmed by Garrick. The reaction from his chosen wand was not strong, was ordinary. These things confirm that he is not magically powerful. The combination of wit, cunning and great magical power would have made him a danger to me. But only wit and cunning would not cause any problems for me. Garrick also said that Mr. Falken did not have any natural shields in his mind. His mind was very easy to read and did not require any effort. This is another good thing for us. The limited guardianship means I will not acquire much ?ssets from him. Since he does not know much about his vaults, I will have to quickly withdraw whatever I can. I am going to Gringotts Minerva. Look after the school for me."


    After that Dumbledore used the floo to go to Diagon Alley. Minerva went back to do her duties.


    After 1 hour, the two of them were again in similar positions across the table but this time Dumbledore was not in a good mood. He was angry.


    Minerva "What happened Albus? What has caused you to have such anger? I have rarely see such an expression on your face. The last time you were this angry was when the Damn law was passed."


    Dumbledore "You were not kidding about Mr. Falken being smart and cunning. After you left him, he quickly went to the Gringotts Bank and closed all his vaults except the family and trust vaults and removed everything from it. He even withdrew nearly everything from his trust vault and only left the money for tuition fees and some for emergencies I think. So I was not able to gain anything from the visit to Gringotts. Moreover, he even acquired the Falken Heir ring from his account manager. This makes him untouchable as harming him would cause a political disaster and even I would not escape from the fallout."


    Minerva "He acted very quickly didn''t he. He was not kidding when he told me to not treat him as a 11-year-old boy. He has learned a lot of knowledge about workings of the muggle world and truly knows how to protect himself. I can bet that currently he is reading up on all the magical laws and making sure that he would not be cheated or harmed. He would also be trying to find laws which he could take advantage of. I think we should not try anything on him till we know for sure that he is a danger for us Albus. With his intelligence and political status, he could cause a lot of problems for us. The impression he has about us is already bad but we don''t want to make him join the dark side with our actions."


    Albus "You are right Minerva. Let us observe him for now. An important thing is that we cannot try to read his mind from now onwards. The heir ring would warn him and record our magical signature. With his intelligence he would use that against us very nicely and we would be in a lot of trouble. I must warn Severus too about this. Let''s wait and watch which house he gets sorted into. Only if it is Slytherin do we have to worry a lot as in there he would use his political power to gain a lot of allies but if he is not part of the house we can use Severus to stop other Heirs from mingling with him."


    Minerva agreed and after that the meeting moved on to other things.


    <End POV>

 Chapter 21 - Hogwarts Express

    Today was 1st September 1988. It was the day when the most important and dangerous part of my life would begin. I woke up early due to the excitement and quickly finished my morning routine and made sure I had packed everything I needed in the trunk last night. I was now ready for Hogwarts.


    The Matron was kind enough to give me a ride to the King''s Cross railway station as she could see that it was an important day for me. My trunk was in my pocket so I did not look like a fool pulling a trolley along the platform with big cage and trunk on the platform. I don''t know why the people around the platform not get weirded by this but my guess is that since it happens rarely and on some specific dates they must think that it is time for some kind of fest like comic con.


    I made my way towards barrier near the platform 9 and platform 10. The barrier only allowed magical people to go through it otherwise someone may have accidentally found the secret platform over the years and we would have said bye-bye to the Statue of Secrecy. The area around the barrier had a magical aura around it which told me there was some magical enchantment there. I think it is something to hide the process of children disappearing through the wall from the non-magical people around the area. it was either do this or put the entrance to the platform 9 ? entrance in a less crowded area. Since the wizarding world was not known for its common sense they chose the former method. I stood in front of the barrier and without any hesitation walked through the wall.


    Coming out through the barrier, I saw the Hogwarts express with a red engine producing huge amount of smoke waiting on the platform 9 ?. I looked around and did not see any other trains, only empty platforms. I guess the one who decided to build the secret station with a number of platforms did not think it through thoroughly and did not think that no wizard or witch would use trains for their travel when they had much better and faster modes of transport. Some Hogwarts Headmaster must have felt sorry for him and decided to make a tradition for Hogwarts student to go to and from Hogwarts via train to make sure that his efforts were made use of in some form and the tradition continues till now.


    Since I had reached early at about 10:00 am, the platform was not crowded and I could see only a few parents saying their goodbyes to their children. I easily made my way to the train and boarded it. I found an empty compartment towards the back and went in and put my trunk on the overhead rack after enlarging it. I did this since I did not know what the elves would do if they did not find my trunk on the train when they transported trunks to the student''s dormitories after the sorting. Sherry had gone early to Hogwarts to help the other elves with the feast and would meet me there.


    At exactly 11:00 am, the train started to move. I did not think there would be many students in my year as the year I was born was during wartime and no one would think of starting a family during that time. The number of students started increasing from the year Harry started school as the war had ended.


    I had a minor disturbance during the trip when a first year student like me opened the door to my compartment. The scene in front of me eerily reminded me of the scene of Harry''s first meeting with Malfoy on the train. At the door stood a rich pureblood heir surrounded by two minions. The novels did not have any famous student that started Hogwarts during my year so I did not know anything about the three of them. The rich child looked at my clothes which were muggle clothes, gave me a disdainful look and said, "Another mud blood." He then left the compartment with his cronies without giving me another look. I smiled as the universe had given me my own Draco Malfoy to humiliate. Things were going to be more fun now.


    After that there were no other disturbances. Since I had free time, I started to think about which house I wanted to go through.


    Gryffindor is out since I am not dumb or reckless enough to rush into danger and it would also make me too close to the trouble magnet characters of this world. There was also the issue of privacy as the dorm room was shared by four people as per the books I have read and they would be too noisy as normal Gryffindors. They worshipped Dumbledore and that was a big no for me.


    Slytherin was out due to obvious reasons. The teachers would play more close attention to the house and it would ruin my plans of being low key and I would be under Snape who may try to spy on me. Additionally, when people finally get to know my magical strength, I would be seen as the next Dark lord by the wizarding sheep. Another thing bugging me was the whole system of a cunning person openly saying to others that he was cunning and ambitious which is a stupid move in my mind. Due to this there would be open political competition between the students of the house and students will have to follow the leader of the House. But it was not all bad since competing with other clever people from a very young age can either break you or make you more cunning and strong. The ones who come out of the house successfully are people who cannot be underestimated as they have been tested in wit, cunning and strength for 7 whole years. At least this was Slytherin during my parents time. I don''t know how it is under Snape.


    Hufflepuff is also no go. It was a house of loyal, hardworking and caring people. The only person I am loyal to in this dangerous world is myself. I can''t trust anyone with my secrets in this world and the case of privacy was a major issue in this house much more than Gryffindor. They would not leave me alone and would ask questions about where I go every day. They would also try to make me a more social person which I was not planning to be.


    So my only option is Ravenclaw. It is also something I can work with. From what I read in the books about Hogwarts, Ravenclaws get individual dorm rooms so that they could concentrate more on their studies. Therefore, privacy won''t be an issue. The people in the house will be busy with their own work and won''t bother other people. Their only goal would be to study and do ?ssignments. I also liked Flitwick from the novels but I will leave my final opinion on him for when I see for myself.


    Now that I had time, I started arranging the fake memories that I had already created for the purpose of sorting and continued perfecting them in my mind. I had to make sure that the hat would directly place me into the house without any deep thinking as there was the chance of it finding something wrong if it searched too deeply into my mind. My idea of creating fake memories gave me an extra task that I had to do every day without fail. I had to change the memories I did not want others to know create fakes daily. The Heir ring would help detect intrusion but it did not stop them and this may not stop some people from trying. I also did not want to take risk. If someone suddenly gave me Veritaserum, I did not want to blurt everything out. On the bright side, this exercise would keep my Mindscape in perfect condition.


    So time went on with me practising Occlumency and making the fake memories up to date. No one else came into my cabin and there were no other disturbances. After a few hours I heard an announcement that we were about to reach Hogsmeade station. I got my new school robes from the trunk, changed into it and waited for the train to reach its destination.

 Chapter 22 - Hogwarts and Sorting - I

    When the train stopped, I heard a booming voice and looked around and found the Half-giant Hagrid calling first years to him. He was taller than the Hagrid in the movies and was twice my height. I went through the crowd slowly without bumping into anyone and stood in front of him along with my fellow first years. We were told to board a small boat. I shared a boat with three other students while we crossed the black lake. I had my mage sight active all the time as I did not want to miss the magical sight of Hogwarts. When we crossed a bridge I saw that the trace was added to all our wands. This confirmed my hypothesis about the trace.


    The first sight of Hogwarts was breath-taking and marvellous. It looked majestic and I could see the aura of large amount of ambient magic surrounding the castle. I felt that staying at this castle will make my magic stronger and stronger without much effort. No wonder Dumbledore refused the position of Minister of Magic and stayed here. In addition to guiding and manipulating young wizards, he also gets the added advantage of gaining magical strength every day.


    Through my mage sight I could also see the castle wards which according to my observation were in bad condition. It looked like some of the wards were deactivated, some of the wards had low power and some newly added wards were connected in a haphazard way. I don''t know warding yet so I am not able to fully identify the wards and the faults but I could tell that the Hogwarts wards were weakening slowly. This should have been the work of Dumbledore and the other Headmasters of Hogwarts who decided to play with the wards without any knowledge on the topic. There also was a dark ward among the other wards which I guessed was responsible for the DADA curse.


    The castle felt as if it was alive. I think it is semi sentient and the elves are controlled by it and not the headmaster. That is why those rules were needed to be followed by Sherry when she came to Hogwarts. I need to read up more on the subject to know for sure.


    Hagrid guided us to the entrance and knocked on a huge door. The door swung open and a tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes (Showing her true inner nature of being a Slytherin) stood there, looking sternly down at us. She glanced at me and I could see the hidden anger in her eyes. Guess she found out about my actions.


    Hagrid "The firs'' years, Professor McGonagall."


    McGonagall "Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."


    McGonagall pulled the door wide and we followed her in. Then she stopped and turned to face us and said, "Welcome to Hogwarts. The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take you seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. They are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. While you are here your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honour. Now, form a line and follow me."


    ''Oh, you may not think I''m pretty,


    But don''t judge on what you see,


    I''ll eat myself if you can find


    A smarter hat than me.


    You can keep your bowlers black,


    Your top hats sleek and tall,


    For I''m the Hogwarts Sorting Hat


    And I can cap them all.


    There''s nothing hidden in your head


    The Sorting Hat can''t see,


    So try me on and I will tell you


    Where you ought to be.


    You might belong in Gryffindor,


    Where dwell the brave at heart,


    Their daring, nerve and chivalry


    Set Gryffindors apart;


    You might belong in Hufflepuff,


    Where they are just and loyal,


    Those patient Hufflepuffs are true


    Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,


    If you''ve a ready mind,


    Where those of wit and learning,


    Will always find their kind;


    Or perhaps in Slytherin


    You''ll make your real friends,


    Those cunning folk use any means


    To achieve their ends.


    So put me on! Don''t be afraid!


    And don''t get in a flap!


    You''re in safe hands (though I have none)


    For I''m a Thinking Cap!''


    I along with everyone else clapped for the song which the sorting hat had sung. Professor McGonagall was standing next to the stool and told us that she''d begin calling out our names and place the hat upon our heads to decide where we''d be sorted.


    I looked at my year mates with my mage sight and found out that most of them had very poor magical strength. It was possible as my year mostly consisted of muggle borns and purebloods of Dark and Neutral families from what I can tell due to the war. The purebloods were weak due to the inbreeding and the muggle borns due to not having had any practice using magic and the less ambient magic in muggle world. Only two of my year mates had average magical strength for their age. One was the snob from the train and another was a girl who looked like she was an Heiress of a rich family. Her robes and actions have it away. She had an emotionless face and was silently observing everything around her. I guess I have will find more about them after their names are called.


    Soon it was my turn. "Falken, Charles" she called.


    She looked at me as if she was seeing me for the first time and did not show any anger or any expression. I guess she and Dumbledore had decided to ignore me for now. My name caused a lot of reactions in the crowd. The pureblood perked up slightly on hearing the name of a house they thought had become extinct. They started discussing this development with their friends.


    The ones who started whispering and made the most noise were the muggleborns. I was slightly famous in the muggle world due to my achievements at a young age so it was not unexpected. My school wanted publicity so I was even interviewed for the newspaper a few times. Since I was studying there with a scholarship I could not deny the school''s request. The interviews gained me some publicity. My genius identity would soon be spread throughout the school and therefore I would have to tone down my practical ability to lose some unwanted attention and jealousy.


    I walked up calmly to the stool and sat down. Then McGonagall placed the sorting hat on my head. As soon as the hat was placed on my head it shouted "Ravenclaw". Happy that my plan worked flawlessly, I skipped over to the Ravenclaw table and sat down with other younger students. The people around me congratulated me and I thanked them. Then the sorting continued.

 Chapter 23 - Hogwarts and Sorting - II

    I soon found out the names of the two people I had observed earlier. The snob was Terence Nott, Heir of Ancient and Noble House of Nott and the girl was Irene Greengrass, Heiress of Most Ancient and Noble House of Greengrass. I knew that these two people did not exist in the HP Universe so most probably it was some kind of bu??erfly effect due to my appearance in this world. Terence Nott may be the Rival for me and Irene Greengrass the love interest. These two would fit their parts very well.


    Irene Greengrass was very elegant and beautiful for a 11-year-old girl. There were no emotions on her face and I knew she would soon be called the Slytherin Ice Queen in this world and not her sister, Daphne even if she existed in this world and had the same character. Terence Nott looked like a general pureblood bigot and I knew he was going to be a bully. They both were sorted into Slytherin.


    One look at Nott and I knew that he could only become at most a above average wizard in his life and would not rival my power. The universe may have designed him as a rival for me thinking that I would be a clueless child in the magical world. It must have not taken into consideration me keeping the memories of my last life. So now instead of becoming my rival he was just going to be the target for me to prank and embarrass.


    As for love life, I would consider it later as I had much more important things to do and only when I am ?ssured of my survivability in this world would i look into that part of my life.


    After these two sortings no one else caught my attention. Other than those two no one else had good political status or magical strength in my year. This year the number of Slytherins sorted was more than any other house and the number of Hufflepuffs was lowest. My year group maybe was the weakest in the novels as in the novels we three were not present. No wonder Diggory was chosen as the Hogwarts Champion even though he was in his sixth year and not someone from the seventh year.


    No important characters in the books belonged to my year. Percy Weasley, Oliver Wood and Marcus Flint were my seniors by one year while Cedric Diggory, Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet and Roger Davies are going to join Hogwarts only next year.


    Looking around I saw three characters from the books. Bill Weasley who was in the 7th year and the Head Boy, his brother Charlie Weasley who was in 5th year and the prefect and Nymphadora Tonks who was also in the 5th year. They were quite easy to spot due to the iconic red hair of Weasleys and the unique pink hair of Tonks. Other than them I did not know anything about any other students.


    After the sorting was over I looked over at the staff table and saw the nice and grandfatherly looking old man smiling and looking around the great hall. Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. Looking at him no one can guess than this kind looking old man is the reason the wizarding world is going to ruin itself into extinction over the coming years. From my mage sight I saw that he was not as powerful as I expected him to be. He was powerful but most of it was not his own power. He was getting power from two sources. From the elder wand he was getting the most power. I could see the wand core was as big as some wizard magic cores and was feeding Dumbledore''s core with magic. Another source I think was the power he got from the bond with Fawkes as the power was coming from somewhere else and I could not see the source. But the power gained from Fawkes was not much when compared to the elder wand. These two sources of power were the reasons for his high magical strength. Maybe his personal strength was stronger during his youth but it had come down due to his old age and not using magic that much and was around the size of core of McGonagall. The core of Dumbledore also had no dark spots in it which meant he was a light wizard. This meant that he had never used any dark spell which was surprising or there must be something that can be done to remove dark spots in the core after casting dark spells. For now I guess I will have to believe he was a light wizard but paranoid and borderline evil. I looked at Dumbledore for only a few seconds. I did not dare looking at him for more than a few seconds so as not to be noticed and then looked over to the other staff members.


    To weaken Dumbledore, I will have to first obtain the allegiance of the Elder wand from him that means get the wand in a duel. I could not do anything to the bond he had with Fawkes as the familiar bonds were going to be active until any one of them died. Since Fawkes was immortal I could not do anything about the bond. I will have to add reading up on Phoenixes on my to do list as I wanted to know if they were truly light creatures and then find out why he bonded with Dumbledore.


    Other professors are same as in the books aside for DADA whose name is pointless to mention as he will be gone soon but I was curious about how he was going to die or leave. The Care of Magical creatures was taught by an old man named Professor Kettleburn, the professor who retired from his job just before Harry''s 3rd year.


    Among the professors only Snape had Dark spots in his magic core. It covered almost half of his magic core. So I cannot tell which side he belongs to. My guess is that he is loyal only to himself and like a true Slytherin he plays equally on both sides so that he can enjoy his life not caring about which side won the war. There was an unusual glow on the dark mark on his wrist and to understand that I would need more knowledge.


    After the feast was done Headmaster stood up and gave a speech telling the usual rules such as Forbidden forest was Forbidden and list of items not allowed in school was put up near the caretaker''s office. Then the most embarrassing and funny Hogwarts song was sung by everyone. I just lip-synced to the song. There was no way that I was going to sing that awful song ever in my life.

 Chapter 24 - Goals of the year and Nott

    Me and my fellow first year Ravenclaws were guided by the 5th year Prefects to the Ravenclaw tower after the feast. After solving the riddle asked by the door, we entered the Ravenclaw common room where the head of the house Professor Filius Flitwick gave a welcoming speech. I saw the statue of the famous Rowena Ravenclaw with the tiara above her head and the famous Ravenclaw library in the common room. We were told the rules of the house which contained nothing important and then guided by the prefects to our respective rooms.


    I found my room and went inside. It was small and cosy same as my room in the orphanage and I was satisfied with it. The room also had a window which gave me a good view of the grounds of the castle. I found my trunk waiting for me on my bed.


    I called Sherry and she helped me decorate and increase the size of the room as per my liking. Then I unpacked and started to go through the goals for this year as I was too excited to sleep. I had four years before the dangerous years of Hogwarts began and I had to use this time to become as strong as possible. I need it to make sure that I can face any situations that was thrown at me during those years.


    I had to acquire the marauder''s map from the caretaker''s room. If I could replicate it within a year, I could place it back for the Weasley twins next year as I did not want to change the plot too much and this map was an important part of it. My coming here has already changed the future and I did not want to bring more changes since I liked having the prophetic advantage.


    Finish the subjects till OWL level that were not in Hogwarts syllabus like duelling, healing, etc.


    Use Room of requirements to train new spells and practice to effectively use the trained spells in battle.


    Read up on the most efficient method of animagus transformation and practice it.


    Be an Outstanding student in all subject in theory but score acceptable in practical. It would make me less of a threat to all parties. Scoring low in theory would cause people to suspect I was faking so I need to score the top marks in it.


    Stay as far away from Dumbledore as possible.


    After thinking about things for some time I felt tired and fell asleep.


    Early next day I woke up and completed my daily exercise routine. I did not go for the morning jog as I did not know the way around the castle. It would have to wait for a few days but doing martial arts exercises was enough for now.


    After a shower and getting ready, I went to the great hall. There were only a few people in the hall eating their Breakfast. After eating, I was wondering what to do when my head of house came and gave me my class schedule. The schedule was of okay. 6 hours of classes each day. Mostly with single subject classes of 1 and half hours. In some classes like in potions we had double periods of 3 hours. Most of the classes were with Hufflepuff and Slytherin and only the Charms class was with Gryffindor.


    When I left the great hall after the breakfast, I was met with the trio of Nott and his cronies in the corridor.


    Nott came up to me and said, "I am Terence Nott. I heard that you grew up in a muggle orphanage, Falken. So you must not know anything about our world. I would be happy to introduce you to the workings of our world."


    I smiled and replied, "You don''t have to worry about me Heir Nott. I know a lot about the workings of the magical world. It seems it is you who has to be introduced to Wizarding Etiquettes, Heir Nott."


    He faltered due to the way I greeted him as he was not expecting it but then due to my mocking he got angry and said, "I am superior so I do not have to greet you in that way Falken. I know wizarding Etiquettes very well."


    I asked, "Is that so? How are you the superior one Heir Nott? From what I have read, I am a pureblood and Heir to a Most Ancient and Noble House while you are heir to an Ancient and Noble House only. It seems you have confused me with someone else like you did on the train."


    Nott replied, "You are not truly pureblood but i am and with our political allies, I have greater status than you politically. And I am superior to you as I have been brought up in a magical home with coaching in subjects for 2 years while you were rotting away in the orphanage. I am much stronger than you."


    I still kept my smile and said, "It says on the paper that I am pureblood and that is enough for me and coming to strength I don''t believe you have advantage over me as you had your magic core stabilised on your 11th birthday too. So that means both of us are on equal starting ground. You are only ahead in theory which with my intelligence I can catch up in no time."


    Nott smiled and said, "You think we both are on the same level with spells? I think you need proof that you are inferior. Do you dare to duel with me Falken?"


    I smiled and said, "Are you challenging the Heir Falken to a formal duel, Heir Nott?"


    He smiled and replied, "Yes I am. Why? Are you afraid? You can still back out?"


    I shook my head and said, "Tell me the time and location and I will be there. Do you need a second to help you in the duel Heir Nott?"


    He scoffed and said, "I don''t need a second. The time and location is tomorrow night at midnight in front of the trophy cabinet. You can''t chicken out of the duel now Falken."


    I replied, "Same to you Heir Nott and I will be there on time."


    I then turned around and left for my first class which was Herbology with Hufflepuffs. I knew Nott was trying to play the classic first year duel prank on me like Malfoy played on Potter and he would inform Filch about me so that I would be caught and punished. It was very easy to tell from his expressions. But I was going to go to the designated duel because when Nott was challenging me to a duel, I spoke in the formal way and he unknowingly challenged me to a legit formal duel. If he fails to appear at the time of the duel, he would be forfeiting a real duel and not a fake one as he presumed. This was the advantage of knowing the laws very well.


    Now if he had shown up and lost, then he will lose only what we bet during the time of the duel but if he fails to appear and forfeits the duel, he will be losing a lot more and he will regret it later.


    The time passed quickly and soon it was time for the duel. The only thing I prepared was a spell to hide my scent. It would help me remain undetected from Filch''s cat, Mrs. Norris. I disillusioned myself, applied the scent hiding spell, went to the designated place and waited for the designated time to pass while still invisible. At around midnight I saw Filch and Mrs. Norris coming to my location. They looked around for some time and after not seeing anyone, Filch cursed Nott for playing a prank on him. The words he spoke were truly enlightening. I waited for extra 10min and since Nott was still absent, took out my wand and then said in a low voice, "I Heir Falken declare that Heir Nott has forfeited the duel which he himself declared on me. I demand just compensation for this insult."


    There was a small light at the tip of my wand signifying that my request was valid. I waited to see what I will get but even after some time, nothing showed up. That''s when I remembered something and hit my head with my free hand. Since the duel was a formal one and I was underage, whatever I gained will be stored in my family vault. I will not be able to check it till I have access to it. I was disappointed as I will not be able to check what I had won for another 6 years.


    I went back to my room and went to sleep without feeling any joy as I could not shove whatever I gained in the face of Nott tomorrow. I really wanted to do that.

 Chapter 25 - Aftermath and Friends

    Next morning, I saw the disappointed and angry face of Nott looking at me. I heard that Filch had scolded him a lot in front of many students just a few minutes ago. He must have expected me to get caught and get punished but instead he was the one who got scolded by Filch. I saw him looking at me from his table and I smirked back at him. He became red with anger and embarrassment and looked away.


    When I met him later in the corridor when he was alone after a class, I mocked him and said, "It seems you were scared Heir Nott since you decided to not come to our Duel. I waited for a long time but the only person I found was Filch who seemed to be looking for something. It looks like it is proven, a child who grew up in a muggle orphanage is better than you, Heir Nott. I hope for your good that this news does not reach your House mates as this would cause your status there to plummet. Forfeiting a duel is frowned on upon by many people."


    Nott paled at what I said but angrily replied, "Are you threatening me Falken? I could make your life difficult if you threaten me. Lets have another duel that duel does not count."


    I smiled and replied, "i don''t have time to waste on another duel. And yes you can make things troublesome for me but I think that you value your status more as it will come very useful in the House of cunning. So stay away from me from now onward, Nott or I will make sure that you will become a laughing stock in Slytherin House and will never be able to rise up in status there."


    He was angry but still kept quiet since he knew I was right. Seeing that he had no reply, I turned around and went my way leaving him alone. Good thing he was alone when I saw him otherwise the threat would not have worked. With this threat over his head he will not make trouble for me until he had good enough standing in the Slytherin House so I was free from his taunts and schemes for some years.


    The next couple of weeks went by, getting settled down in Hogwarts, roaming around the castle and mapping the way around the castle in my mind and attending classes. With the castle plotted out in my mind, I started my daily morning jogs. I also got to know about the students in Ravenclaw house. Muggleborns were interested about getting to know me but they soon learnt that I was not a social person and decided to give me my space. I only gave the usual greeting and did not take part in any of their activities. I did not want to distance a lot of Heirs by becoming too close with the muggleborns and I also did not want to distance the muggle borns from me. So I kept a cordial relationship with both sides. I helped people who came to me with doubts about what was thought in class. For extra studies, I acted clueless.


    I had a lot of things to do in the next four years so I could only hang out with the friends that would not disturb me during my free time. So it was good that I was in Ravenclaw as I could find people that fit the criteria only here. I found two students in my year who fit the criteria and became friends with them. They were Elena Spiers and Damien Broad. They both were childhood friends and after I became friends with Damien, he introduced me to Elena. Elena was pureblood and was very studious spending all her free time studying while Damien was halfblood and was not too interested in studies but still a genius. He spent the time away from us talking with others about quiditch which we both did not like. He tried to argue but our facts made sure that he could not. Since he could not convince us, he found other people to discuss about Quidditch. Both of them belonged to small wizarding families that had come up in recent years but still had ties to the muggle world. So they were not clueless about the development in the muggle world. They both were also able to have intelligent conversations about both worlds with me and not act like typical clueless 11-year-old children.


    I started helping them in theoretical part and with their intelligence they started excelling in classes. They both had enough magical reserves which with enough practice could make them strong magic users in the future. I needed some friends here at Hogwarts to have fun otherwise Hogwarts will be too boring. It was a boarding school and if I was alone all the time I would become crazy.


    I did not make friends during my childhood due to many reasons. During my early childhood it was not possible for me to get friends. Doing silly things that small children do, calling people silly names and telling children jokes like all young children do was not possible for me. It was immature and i could not bring myself to even act like them. So I gave up. In the muggle schools due to the age difference, others stayed away from me. The fact that I would be going to Hogwarts in a few years also discouraged me from making friends at school. Since I would not be able to meet or talk(no phone) to them for 10 months of a year and I would not be able to talk about magic with them, there was no way that the friendships were going to last. Since they were ?du?ts, it was very easy for them to detect my lies if I lied too much. So my only friend was Sherry and that was enough for me at that time.


    My plan was to stay in cordial relationship with everyone and stay with only a few close people till Harry starts Hogwarts and only then start socializing with other houses and years. By then I would have enough strength and completed most of my goals that I could slow down my studies and not have hectic schedules.


    With Nott not making trouble for me, I was left alone by the Slytherins of my year. The Snior Slytherins left me alone as if they were caught making things tough for me then they will be in a lot of trouble due to being older and the laws greatly supporting me due to my age. Only people of my year would not be in a lot of trouble if they harm me. With my Heir status, me not making any trouble for them and no one in my year coming forward to try their luck, the Slytherin decided to leave me alone. They were Slytherins and making trouble for me in spite of all my advantages would make them no better than a Gryffindor.


    The Gryfiindors had a mentality that every pureblood who followed the wizarding Etiquettes were dark and the Gryffindor students in my year were scared of me due to it. They did not even consider the fact that I spent all my life in the muggle world and would not be against muggles and muggle borns. Since they were foolish enough to believe that I was dark, I stayed away from them.

 Chapter 26 - Classes

    Now let''s talk about the classes. Since I am far ahead in the subjects, they are too boring for me. My last two months of training brought was helpful as I was able to do spells incorrectly without causing any suspicion. I made it so that I correctly performed the spell only after a few students have done so already.


    Transfiguration was interesting class but only for the ones who were seeing magic for the first time. Only the base knowledge of doing the spell was given in the first class and then we were told to do the spell. In the next class the more detailed explanation to complete the spell is given and then most of the students can do the spell very easily. By the end of the two classes most of the average and above average can do their spells. Interesting way of taking class but for 11 year olds but I think this way is good as it makes them think on the spell themselves before the teacher shows the correct way. But the spells we were doing in class were transfiguring toothpicks and bu??ons so boring for me.


    The first few classes in Charms were full of theories but it was still fun because of the funny antics the professor would perform during the period to keep children interested. He did funny stuff or said funny comments or changed into a different interesting topic during the time when he felt children were getting bored. He also showed beautiful charms to increase the children''s excitement on magic and it made children more interested in gaining knowledge about magic. After the theory classes doing charms was much easier. So far we have only cast the lumos charm and the levitation charm. I had to control my magic to not bright up the whole classroom when I performed the Lumos charm.


    Potions is like if you ask a Professor who taught in Masters classes in colleges to come and teach in students in primary school when he was totally not interested in doing so and just wanted to continue his research. He has the knowledge but does not know the way in which it must be taught to children but mainly he was not interested to spend the effort. Snape teaches as if we know every preliminary steps and just writes the steps on the board and tells us to follow them. We get to know what steps should not be done and more about the steps only when he scolds the people who have committed mistakes and explains their mistake to them. He was not too difficult on Ravenclaws and his main targets for sneering at were the two remaining Hogwarts houses. He liked tormenting Gryffindor the most. It was his way of taking revenge on them for pranking him in his school days.


    I guess he is here only because he gets protection from getting arrested by being here with Dumbledore. Out of school, he will be on veritaserum and talking about his deeds as a Death Eater to the DMLE in no time as he was a half blood and was not protected by the pureblood laws. His life aim should have been to just stay in his lab and cook up new potions but due to the war he was stuck here teaching dunderheads.


    Astronomy is at night and I don''t know why this is still taught in Hogwarts. It is heavily outdated and I have never read any person using it in the novels. The only use of astronomy is while doing rituals but since they have banned rituals it that makes the whole class useless. Another use should be divination and that too is useless if you are not a seer or a centaur. They even do not know that non magical people have even stepped on the moon and have telescopes that can see far away into the universe.


    History of magic is much worse than I thought. You cannot stay awake in the class if you are listening to his speech. You have to concentrate on other works to stay awake. It was mostly on Goblin wars and his voice was monotonous without any change. So for most of the students it was the nap time.


    Herbology is showing different types of plants and explaining the various methods to grow, harvest and use them. The teacher was good but I had no particular interest in the subject. I did not think growing and harvesting plants would ever come in to use for me. Only the uses of different plants was important for me.


    DADA consisted of nothing interesting in this year and most of the time is spent on theory. It was mainly about initial instructions about light and dark magic and explain the ways to defend against many kinds of spells. Also, the teacher was not good as I think all good teachers will be afraid of the DADA curse by now. Spells start in second year.


    I liked the Charms, Transfiguration and Herbology a lot. Even though I know a lot from the books, practical classes do help in correcting small things here and there. The three teachers were very well versed in their fields and had a lot of experience which I lacked. It helped me make my knowledge in the fields more thorough and spells more efficient .


    Since I was just planning on hiding my magical strength and not intelligence, I asked a lot of doubts from these three and Snape. They were happy to answer my theoretical doubts even though it was not part of the curriculum, even Snape and McGonagall. Snape grudgingly answered my doubts but I think he was happy that I asked good doubts and I was most probably his best student since I made the best potions in class. I did not need to hide in potions since there was no magic involved. I think McGonagall likes teaching and is always happy to help others including me in her subject in spite of everything.

 Chapter 27 - The Room of Requirements

    Aside from classes and some time for friends, my time was spent in my room trying to perfect the Disillusionment charm, scent hiding charm and a spell to mute my footsteps so that I could move around Hogwarts freely and visit the legendary Room of requirements.


    Soon I mastered all the spells. So I decided to visit Room of requirements. There was also another problem that I had to solve before I visited Room of requirements to avoid detection. I could not check if anyone was out in the hallway when I exited the Room of requirements so I had to speed up the acquisition of Marauder''s map. I took out the schedule of the Filch and his cat which I had mapped during these days with the help of Sherry. The timing was almost the same every day so I could find the perfect time to steal the map from it. I was in a hurry so after I found the perfect time interval during night in which the room was unguarded, I went towards the Filch''s room after disillusioning myself. I was careful to make sure that my scent was hidden as it could lead to me if Mrs. Norris sensed it later.


    When I was there I checked to see if anyone was there and luckily no one was near the room. I had Sherry wait outside to warn me if anyone approaches and quickly went into the room and found the cupboard which was marked dangerous items and searched for the old parchment. I found it very easily and then checked to see if it was the real one. When I said the password ''I solemnly swear I am up to no good'' the parchment changed and the map of the floor I was present on was shown on it. I saw that no one was near me so after closing the parchment using the phrase ''Mischief Managed'' and quickly left the room. I told Sherry to make sure that I did not leave any traces and quickly went to my room in the Ravenclaw tower while disillusioned. My luck was too good and I was not found by anyone else and the whole process took only 30 minutes. Along the way I checked if there was someone invisible in the path I took using the map and was happy there was no one. So the mission was a perfect success.


    Now there was nothing else stopping me from going to the Legendary Room of Requirements. I decided I would go to the Room of requirements tomorrow. I was too excited to wait any longer.


    After classes I went into an empty corridor, disillusioned myself, applied the various spells and made my way towards the 7th Floor. I stood across the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy (some barmy wizard!) and walked past the wall opposite it three times while thinking for a place to practice magic. When I crossed the wall for the third time the wall split into two and there was a door in the wall. I opened the door and went inside making sure that no one was present in the hallway.


    When I entered the room I was met with the sight of a room of the size similar to a classroom. One side contained various dummies and another side contained a couple of bookshelves filled with books. Then I started testing the room. It was a lot better than I imagined. The room could be called the Room of Illusions. The room can make realistic illusions of anything we can think of but with some conditions. The room could make the things that was available at the time it was made so I cannot ask for a modern muggle room or anything like that. Since it was an illusion, we cannot ask for water or any eatables from the room. I had Sherry for that so it was not a problem.


    It can provide me with a copy of anything that is present inside Hogwarts which is Hogwarts property and the things no one else has claim to. So I could access the whole Hogwarts library including the restricted section and even the Headmaster''s collection of books which he removed from the library from the Room itself. I guess this makes the efforts Dumbledore took in hiding some books futile. I could also ask for books that the Hogwarts professors had bought using Hogwarts funds as it was owned by Hogwarts and not them. I could not gain access to Dumbledore''s private collection of books or the various teachers private books and notes, which was a shame. But since even the books were an illusion and was not taken from its original location, they could not be taken out of the room and I could read them only when I here in the room. Only the things present in the Room of Hidden Things could be taken out of the room. Other things would just disappear as soon as I left the room. I guess I will have to read normal books from the library and use the time in ROR for restricted books. I did not enter the Room of hidden things and check for books and other interesting things for now as there was not much use for them at the moment and some items in there were dangerous and I did not want to accidentally get cursed.


    The dummies in the room of different types and sizes. Some were stationary and some moved in predefined fashions. They must have been used in the old times for duelling practice. I could not have the perfect battle enactment using this but with the dummies along with an obstacle course that I could think up, I could a get close enough scenario.


    I checked for a time dilation option in the ROR which I had read about in various fan fictions but was disappointed as that was not available. Guess it would have make the room too powerful.


    All in all, I was more than satisfied with the room and added a visit to it to my daily schedule. So after a total of 2 weeks in Hogwarts, I had finally prepared the daily schedule to follow when I am in Hogwarts which looked packed with things to do. Now the only thing left to do was to stick to it and hope there are no interruptions.

 Chapter 28 - Bullying at Hogwarts

    Now I could easily pass my life in Hogwarts and follow my schedule without any worries. So the days went on with me following the schedule to heart. The growth in the strength I achieved during this time was many times more than what I used to get when I practised at the orphanage due to the high amount of ambient magic present around the castle.


    As my magic reserves increased, my daily practice of depleting it and then restoring to increase the reserves was becoming too time consuming so I needed to find a possible solution soon.


    Since I was a centre of attention in the castle and being monitored by pureblood heirs and faculty, I could not stay in ROR for a long time. So the Room was mainly used at night time when everyone thought I was in my room. During day I spent most of my time in the library reading books disguised as first year or general books as I did not want others to know what I was reading.


    One thing I found very disturbing was the amount of bullying inside the school. I mean I have seen a lot of Bullying in my high school but they were all done in secret and hidden from the teachers but here it was all out in the open. The bullies stop harrassing their victims when they see a teacher but they are not afraid of getting punished for it. Bullying was rampart in the school and the professors I think were forced to turn a blind eye towards it. Muggle borns were bullied the most. Except Hufflepuff, every house had bullying inside the house but Hufflepuffs were the most bullied in the school. No teacher helped them out. I could see some sadness in the eyes of some teachers like Flitwick and Sprout when they saw bullying in front of them but for some reason they only took a few points and left the issue alone. McGonagall was too busy to even notice the bullying in the school while Snape I think did not do anything since most of the bullies were Slytherin and the victims Gryffindor and Hufflepuff.


    I wanted to know why the teachers did not do anything, so I took the risk and asked my Head of the House about it after class. When everyone had vacated the class, I stayed behind and waited for him to notice me.


    Flitwick "Mr. Falken, what can I do for you?"


    I replied, "Sir, there is something about this school that has been bugging me for a long time and I wanted some answers."


    He looked at me and nodded for me to continue.


    I asked, "Sir, isn''t the Bullying of students inside the school too much? And why are the teachers not taking actions against the bullies? I have seen that you are not happy about it sir but even then you are not punishing the bullies. May I ask why? I am fortunate enough to not get bullied due to my status but I don''t want others to go through it."


    Flitwick had a solemn face while he thought for some time after hearing my questions. He finally sighed and said, "I know that you wise for your age. So I am trusting you with some things but I hope you do not take react badly. You see even us teachers do not like the bullying that has been rampart in the school for some years. It has been there at Hogwarts for many years but only recently has it been increasing a lot. You see the Headmasters of the Hogwarts including Albus and Armando Dippet before him have the belief that bullying is a part of growing up for children and they must learn to face it so that they can become strong people. So they asked all the professors to leave Bullying and pranking alone and let the students take care of themselves. We were okay at first as students must learn to face some problems in their life so that can survive in the outside world but when we saw the extent to which bullying was going on, we were very worried for the children. So we asked the Headmaster to take some action but he always says he will look into it later or children were just having fun and never took any action. When we decided to act on our own, we were told to stopped by the Headmaster and told not to do it ever again. So all we can do is sit back and watch while hoping that the children survive their difficulties."


    I nodded and asked, "Why has it increased nowadays?"


    Flitwick "You see after You-Know-Who was defeated, Albus said that the students of other three house will take revenge on the Slytherin house due to the actions of the dark side so he asked us to show Slytherin House some favouritism. That started out well as it calmed the school down after the war but the favouritism continued and now it has come to a point that the Slytherin house take it for granted and expect favouritism from us. With Severus as the Slytherin Head, they get more freedom to do what they want as Severus does not take any action against them for bullying. Hence it has come to this stage and we cannot act against Severus as for some reason Albus trusts Severus more than us."


    I sighed and asked, "Is there anything I can do to stop the bullying?"


    He replied, "I don''t think there is as the ones who are bullying have high political power and can act against you. Since you are still a minor, your political power is limited so if you are caught doing something to them you will be in a lot of trouble."


    I nodded and mischievously replied, "I guess there is only one way I can help them."


    Flitwick "What?"


    I smiled and said, "I heard that the Weasley twins are starting Hogwarts next year and from what I heard they are famous for their pranks. So I guess I would have to ask them to prank the bullies by providing them some incentives. And since Weasley''s are loyal to Headmaster Dumbledore, I don''t think he will ever let anything bad happen to them."


    Flitwick smiled and said, "It will not stop the bullying but at least the people hurt would not be of only one side. It may divert the attention of the bullies or discourage bullying altogether if done in the right way. I hope one day we can do something to stop it altogether though. It was good talking to you Mr. Falken. If you have any other questions, please feel free to come to me."


    I thanked him and left the room. I had my answers but the professor left one thing out. Even cases of severe harm earned the perpetrator only a few detentions. These incidents were to be judged by Dumbledore and since the perpetrators were mainly of powerful families, he did not take action against them and just left them with a warning and few detentions.


    I decided I must do something about it but since the perpetrators were children with high status I had to be careful about it. I needed to make sure that it would not be traced back to me. So needed to prepare a lot for it. For now, I would have to leave it to the twins while I finish preparing the fool proof way of pranking as I need something to hide my magical trace.

 Chapter 29 - Muggleborns

    Coming to the topic of muggleborns, I wanted to know how they came upon the gift of magic. After a lot of research in the ROR, I found that there were two reasons due to which magical children are born in muggle homes.


    One of them was that they were descendants of Squib lines. With the increasing defects in their genes due to inbreeding, some pureblood lines produce squibs who are abandoned in the muggle world after removing their memories of magic. The descendants of these squibs over generations, get rid of the defects in their blood that stopped them from possessing magic by the addition of new genes and once again gain the gift of magic. These children are treated as muggleborns as no one checks if their parents are squibs, by the wizarding world. These children could be technically called halfbloods or purebloods in some cases.


    For the next reason, I would have to go into the concept of ley lines. Ley lines are concentrated rivers of magic that flow below the earth''s crust. They are responsible for the high concentration of magic in some lands. The more number of ley lines that passes below the land, the more the concentration of magic in the air present there. These ley lines are used to power up the wards of magical homes. It is due to this reason that the wards in magical homes are able to stand for generations without interruptions. Hogwarts is magically rich because it has 4 ley lines below it and its wards are powered up using all four of them. This makes the wards stronger than any wards in Europe and Hogwarts have a lot of ambient magic in its surrounding air. For homes without ley lines below them, the wards will have to be powered up by using their magic in intervals of time like that with my London home.


    Now, these ley lines are everywhere around the world and release magic into the air. So in very rare cases, due to the magic in the air, the genes of new born babies sometimes get mutated when they are in the foetus form in their mother''s w?mb and they form magic cores in their bodies. This is very rare and that too mostly happens in places with high concentration of magic. It has a probability of nearly 1 in a million chance of successful evolution. This was the way ancient magical people and Magical creatures came to be. So all wizards and witches can trace their ancestry to someone who gained his magic in this way.


    Europe is seen as a magical powerhouse due to the presence of large amount of ley lines under it more than anywhere else in the world. This is the reason why powerful people like Merlin and the founders came from here. This is also the reason for a large number of muggle borns being born here. The presence of high magic in the air also helps get rid of defects in squib lines faster.


    So these two reasons are the cause of muggle borns coming into the magical world. The first case is the most common, while the second case is very rare. My mother''s ancestor should have come to attain magic due to the second reason as I did not find any lost lines in my blood during the heritage test. But since the heritage test was only a surface test and did not look too deeply into my blood, I may have a chance of belonging to another old family. So most of these muggle borns belonged to old families and can be technically treated as Halfbloods or in cases of both parents being squibs, purebloods.


    This information was hidden deep in the books and it took me a lot of research to find it. I could not release my research into the world as it may lead to a lot of trouble. The magical world would most likely skip the first reason and concentrate on the second one. Since the magical world did not believe in evolution, they will mostly take it as muggleborns stealing magic from the squibs instead and this would lead to the mass killings of muggleborns. So this information was better to kept safely hidden. I could advice some people to take heritage tests at Gringotts but it would only look back 5 generations and any test that checked deeper was not available presently. So it was useful only for recent families and since the vaults were most likely emptied and closed, there was nothing to gain for them from finding out other than the elevated status for which they will have to do a lot of paperwork at the ministry to prove their ancestry.


    This concluded my research on the topic. It took a few day and after that I started to research another topic. Who were superior, the ones with magical parents or muggleborns?


    What I found was that for the same age if the pureblood wizard had no defects in his or her blood, then it could be said that purebloods are stronger. Wizards/Witches born from magical families gained a lot of benefits from their ancestors. When the ancestors performed a ritual to gain strength or any other reason, their descendants were gifted with some of the benefits, the ancestor had gained. The gifts like my mage sight, metamorphagous and parseltongue were gained by wizards in old times after performing some specific ritual, after which their children also were gifted it through their blood. This was one advantage of belonging to a wizarding family.


    The next advantage is that by living in a magical environment, the child gains more growth of magic in his core as he grows. There were many other advantages too but they were not as important as these three.


    So muggleborns and squib borns (since their magical blood loses most of its power over time after removing the defects caused by inbreeding) start with very serious disadvantages. The only advantage they had was, they started with a clean slate. So they could concentrate and learn any field of magic without the problem of their magic core leaning to a particular field. Since they could now focus on any field of magic, it was very easy for them to branch out and learn all fields of magic much more quickly and easily than others. The others will need to have strong will power to study other fields of magic. Since they will find a field of magic easier, they will think that other fields are more tough for them even if they have the same difficulty that others have. So they only concentrate on the easier field and leave the others alone.


    They also find it easier to do rituals since they don''t have the by-products of other rituals in their body making which would make performing successful rituals harder.


    So for muggle borns to become stronger, they need the help of rituals, but since they are banned by the ministry, they have no such hope. But due to the amount of inbreeding in the magical population already, it seemed like the purebloods were on the same level of strength as muggleborns.


    This does not mean that the purebloods must marry muggleborns, to keep their magic strong, that too must be done in a careful way since by having a lot of muggleborn marriages in the family lines will also lead to the loss of family magic due to the non-magical part of genes present in muggleborns. So it is better to find some partner that is not related to you or very distantly related to you. If that is not possible, then find a partner among muggle borns but make sure that you children chose their partner from half-bloods or purebloods. If the muggleborn has performed rituals during their young age, then there is no problem as the non-magical part of their genes will get overpowered during the ritual.


    The best case scenario to keep magic strong is to find a totally unrelated partner from a magical family or find a muggleborn who has performed rituals like I did at the age of seven before their magic has m?tur?d. These two scenarios will make sure that the child born will gain the best parts of both parents without any loss of family magic.

 Chapter 30 - Phoenixes and Animagus Transformation

    The next important thing I wanted to research about during this year were phoenixes and the animagus transformation. So my next targets were these two topics.


    Since I was doing my researches on various topic parallel to my other studies, it took a lot of time. After scourging through a lot of books, I finished both these researches too but it was the end of the year by then.


    Let me start with Phoenixes. Phoenixes are just magical birds and they do not side show favouritism to any form of magic be it light or dark. They have many abilities like they can carry heavy things easily, they can travel large distances with bursts of flames, they are immortal and their tears have high healing property. They are also very hard to form a bond with and domesticate but once they form a bond they are extremely loyal to the person with whom it has formed a bond with. The number of known people who have formed a bond with a phoenix is only two in this world which would explain the rarity. Dumbledore formed a familiar bond with Fawkes during his early years before his duel with Grindelwald. With Dumbledore acting as the Light Lord over the years and fawkes being his familiar, soon the Phoenixes were known as Light creatures. In the same way a Basilisk which was the familiar of Salazar Slytherin became known as a Dark creature. But in truth they were just magical creatures and did not belong to either side.


    So I could not do anything to the break the bond Fawkes had with Dumbledore and the power boost he got from the phoenix bond was there to stay. I could only take away the Elder wand to weaken Dumbledore.


    Coming to animagus transformation. I researched extensively on the topic as I wanted to use the method that would give me the most benefit. The method normally used is to keep a mandrake leaf inside the mouth for a month and after a month use the same mandrake leaf to brew an animagus potion. After drinking the potion, the user goes into a trance like state where they experience becoming their animagus animal and find out which animal they can become. What follows is long process of reading up on the animal, understanding its various parts and slowly changing parts of the body to that of the animal using transfiguration till one day you can finally completely transform into the animal. This method is a forced and painful process and it needs the help of others so that they can help you if you accidentally disfigure yourself. This method was a forced process in which you are forcing your body to become the animal. So it does not give any other benefits other than the transformation and was quite risky.


    The best, most fruitful and hardest method for animagus transformation I found is using occlumency to feel the inner animal in your mind, find it and form a bond with it. Then slowly and steadily grow closer to it and become one with it. During this time, you will form a deep understanding of your inner animal. After that you can transform into the animal easily by thinking about it. In this transformation after the first transformation you gain some of the traits of the animal which you transform into. This method is not popular and got lost in time due to its difficult process and time taken to complete it. You cannot find about this method anywhere else as it had been lost. I found out about it only due to it being available in the books in the room of hidden things where all the books thrown away are stored by the elves.


    This is very tough process and almost impossible for many people. First you have to master occlumency. Then you have to find your inner animal with meditation. Then you have to form a bond with it. Then you have to become one with it by learning everything about it through your bond and only then can you transform. For this whole process it will take minimum of ten years for the most talented wizard. But other easier process can be done by anyone with enough determination in a year or so as even wormtail was able to do it in two years. Comparing the two methods people felt the traits were not important enough to waste so many years of time, so people lost interest in this method and soon it was lost.


    Since my Occlumency was perfect I could save most of the time to complete this transformation. So I decided to use this method for my animagus transformation.


    By the time I found this method, it was only one week away from the end of the term feast. So I decided to start practising the method during the holidays.

 Chapter 31 - End of First Year

    The time passed quickly due to my hectic schedule and it was soon the end of the term feast. Nothing interesting happened during the year other than the fact that the DADA fell of the moving stairs. He survived but the incident made him believe in the curse and he decided to quit.


    Other than that it was a boring year. It looked like I had to wait until Harry started school just to go through some exciting and dangerous adventures.


    At the feast, I was sitting at the Ravenclaw table as the Great hall was decorated with Slytherin banners. Yes. Slytherin had won the cup due to Snape''s favouritism but the Gryffindor House had won the Quidditch Cup. With both Bill and Charlie Weasley on the team, the team was very strong but it was going to change next year as Bill had already graduated this year. Due to Quidditch, Gryffindor was the close second in terms of total points.


    I stayed at Hogwarts during Christmas and Easter holidays as I did not want to miss any opportunity to soak in the ambient aura of Hogwarts. The increase in my magical reserves was many times more when I stayed here so I wanted to make use of all the opportunity I got.


    People started losing the special interest in me as the year went on and by the year end, I was treated as any other pureblood heir in the school. My bad performance in practical made me less of a threat for purebloods and also made muggle borns leave me alone as they did not want to ask the help of someone who performed at the same as them.


    I had to lie to my friends that I had more interest in reading things about this new world than practising spells, so my performance in practicals was not good. I told them that only OWL and NEWT grades mattered in the outside world so I was not going to put much effort in my studies and concentrate more on things I had to learn about my place in this world. They were satisfied with my explanation and did not bring up the topic again. They both had scored the highest in the Ravenclaw house while I was at the bottom of top 10.


    The only problem I faced during the school year was the amount of ?ssignments required to be submitted for different subjects. I wrote the first few ones very well in the required amount and got Outstanding in them. But later with my increasing work load, I decided that the marks in school was not much important and performing well in the Owls was enough. So I started writing shorter ?ssignments. I had the knowledge but no time or patience to write 4 parchments when only 2 was needed to explain the topic. So I started getting mixed grades with E and O depending upon the mood of the Professors. Snape gave me only Acceptable but I was happy that it was not a Troll.


    Coming to my studies, I reached OWL level in all subjects that were not taught in Hogwarts like healing, duelling, alchemy, law and languages (French and Spanish). The ROR was a great help in improving my duelling skills and I could say for sure that now I could take on a couple of 7th years alone without any problem. I had time remaining after everything so I used it finish my studies in Ancient Runes and Arithmency. So I was now NEWT level in Arithmency and Ancient Runes.


    My studies in Runes helped me to find a way to solve the problem of not being able to empty my magical core quickly enough for my daily exercise. I developed a Rune sequence which when activated by my magic absorbs it quickly and then dissipates it into the surroundings without any problems so all I had to do was to keep it activated untill my core was near depletion. It was done in only 5 minutes. This will save me a lot of time in the future. I also created weight runes to help me exercise as there was no weight training goods in Hogwarts. These runes made it possible for me to adjust the weights of objects I apply them on. So I used a transfigured dumbbell with these runes for my daily exercises.


    I also decoded the marauder''s map and made a more advanced copy of it which included the ROR and position of the chamber of secrets. I could now add more details to the advanced copy to make the perfect map of Hogwarts. They had roamed through all of Hogwarts and mapped it just to make this map and then apply a powerful Homonculous Charm to track the movement of people in the mapped area. I still called my advanced version the Marauder''s map as a show of my appreciation for their ingenuity in making it. I was also able to find a way to hide my presence in the marauder''s map whenever I wanted. So I could now safely leave it in Filch''s office for the twins without caring about the twins knowing about my adventures. Since I did not make any mess in his room Filch did not know that someone had broken into his room and stolen something. So there was no increase in security and I could easily return the original map to the cabinet.


    During the year I also practiced my Legilimency on my unsuspecting classmates. It was quite easy to read the minds of most of the students in Hogwarts due to their lack of training so I could read their minds easily with passive Legilimency itself. For the ones with basic shields I had to cast wandlessly and after many trial and errors to try to find the flaws in their shields and then by going through those faults I could read their minds without them noticing my intrusion. It was a lengthy and slow process but it was getting faster and faster with practice.


    I did not try it on the heirs as I knew the heir ring would inform them about the attack on their minds. So now I was researching ways to block the ring before I read their minds. I had my ring to practice on but I had not found a way till now.


    Now it was time to go back to London and the orphanage. Sherry would join me later after she was done helping the other elves with the cleaning after the feast.


    I confirmed that I was right that the trace was placed on wands when everyone entered Hogwarts for the first time via the lake. It gets removed during maturity automatically when our magic changes. In areas with heavy magical activity the trace does not work properly due to interference of the high amount of magic and magic can be done with wands there without the ministry finding out like in Diagon Alley. Wandless magic is not detected by the trace as trace applied to the wand only senses the magic that flows through the wand. So I could continue to do my exercises without any problems.

 Chapter 32 - Meeting

    Scene: End of the Term Professors Meeting


    <No POV>


    All the professors were sitting in the Headmaster''s office. The room was modified to accommodate all the teachers across a long table. Even the ghost Binns can be seen floating above the professors heads.


    Dumbledore "Another year has come to an end. Did anything beyond ordinary happen this year that you would like to report ? If there is nothing to report, let''s talk about the new students that joined this year. Any in particular worth mentioning?"


    Minerva "It was a quiet year. The only drama was what happened to the DADA professor which we are used to by now. Coming to the new students, it is not a particularly strong batch. None of the Gryffindors have done anything praiseworthy. Even the muggleborns are not performing well in their studies."


    Flitwick "I agree with Minerva''s analysis. Even in Ravenclaw only Ms. Spiers, Mr. Broad and Mr. Falken show some level of promise. Others are only slowly improving and it would take them some more time to be able to increase their performance to an adequate level."


    Sprout "No good addition to the Hufflepuff house among the few we got."


    Dumbledore nodded and then turned towards Severus.


    Severus "Only two Slytherins are better than the other dunderheads. Ms. Greengrass and Mr. Nott. They should be the best of this batch in terms of magical ability. Others are just wasting my time."


    Dumbledore "Is that all? What about Mr. Falken? From his performance in the muggle world, I thought he would perform well here too."


    Flitwick "Yes he is a genius. He is above every one of his year mates in the theory part of the subject but unfortunately he lacks the required magical reserves to perform the spells quickly and correctly. He is suffering from the same problem that a lot of genius muggle borns have faced before him. They all had the knowledge but not enough magic to do spells. I am hopeful that his stay at Hogwarts would correct the problem."


    Minerva "Yes Mr. Falken is an intelligent boy. He was the fastest muggle raised wizards to fit into our world. He quickly picked up all the Etiquettes and has earned the respect of many purebloods due to this. The only problem other than the magic reserves that brings down his marks is that he is too lazy. He always writes short ?ssignments. Never follows my instructions about the number of words needed for the ?ssignment."


    Flitwick "Yes. He hates writing long ?ssignments. But the content is very good and informative. I have never seen such well written and precise ?ssignments in my life. It is too bad that I have to mark him low due to the lack of required number of words. I asked him about it and he said that writing long ?ssignments cuts the time he has to read an extra book and he does not care much about ?ssignment marks. He really likes reading as he has a book in his hands all the time."


    Sprout "He does not have much interest in Herbology from what I observed. I can see his lack of interest when he handles the different plants at the greenhouse."


    Dumbledore "Since he is only lacking magical ability how is he in potions Severus?"


    Severus "He is above average. His potion making ability is good. Knows not to play in the lab and concentrate on his work unlike the other idiots that I have to teach."


    The other professors smiled after hearing that since it was the first time they had heard him praise a student. They knew that a small praise by Severus meant the student was very good at Potions.


    Dumbledore "Is there anything else that anyone has to say at this meeting? If not, then I am bringing the meeting to a close."


    Dumbledore "So what else can you tell me about Mr. Falken after observing him for a year."


    McGonagall "He is not a very social person just like most Ravenclaws. He is satisfied with his two friends he made this year. The two friends of his have improved a lot over the course of this year and I think it is due to the coaching of Mr. Falken. They have more magical ability than him so it is obvious that they performed better in the exams."


    Snape "Slytherin did not try to bully him at all. Nott tried to get him caught after curfew at the start of the year. But it backfired on him and it allowed Falken to gain some blackmail material on Nott. This made Nott avoid Falken throughout the year and this in turn caused the bullies to avoid Falken. If this was planned by Falken then it was a Slytherin move."


    Dumbledore "Where does he stand politically?"


    Snape "He is not favouring any side. I think he does not have any love for the dark or the light. He is most likely to join the Neutral side like his parents."


    McGonagall "He just hangs out with his two friends and does not bother becoming close with others. He is trying to distance himself from both the muggle borns and the pureblood heirs. I think due to his upbringing in the muggle world he does not have any ill will for the muggle borns but avoids them so as to not be grouped in with the light side by the dark side heirs."


    Dumbledore "Then everything is fine for now. Stop paying too much attention to him from now on. If he notices our surveillance on him, it may force him to hate us and join the dark side and we don''t want that. Treat him like you treat all other students. Do is until you have any suspecion of him going dark. We have to worry about him only of he joins the dark side."


    Then McGonagall left and Snape left leaving only Dumbledore behind in his office.


    <End>

 Chapter 33 - Leaving Orphanage and Holidays

    When the train reached King''s cross station I quickly went to an empty alley and called Sherry who then popped me to my house.


    I needed to learn apparating soon as I could not count on Sherry every time I needed to travel somewhere. When Sherry apparated taking me along, the distance she could travel was shortened and the process was quite taxing on her magic. It was okay for the short distance we travelled now but for large distances it would cause many problems. I was postponing learning apparition as I wanted to make sure that I did not accidentally splinch myself while apparating and was waiting to become proficient enough in healing so that I could fix the mistakes myself in case something happens. I could not go to healers to treat this as it would lead them to know what I was trying to do and apparating without licence while being underage would cause me a lot of problems with the Ministry of Magic. For now, I was just doing research on apparating and how to make it more comfortable and silent.


    First thing on my list to do after reaching London was to leave the orphanage. I stayed at the orphanage till now as it was more convenient for me to attend school while staying there otherwise it would have been difficult to even get admitted to a school. A lot of troublesome paperwork and magic was avoided due to my stay there and I also saved a lot of money too through the many scholarships I won for my studies. Another reason for my stay was that I wanted my Hogwarts letter to be addressed to the orphanage.


    But now staying there would cause a lot of problems for me. Staying there was going to limit the time I had for my activities, I would also have to be careful while practicing magic so as to be not seen and would need me to ask permissions from the matron for all my outdoor trips. So I wanted to leave the orphanage. But it was going to take some planning. There was no way the matron was going to let me leave the orphanage at my age to live on my own. Getting emancipated early was also out of option. The courts would not allow some 11-year-old to get emancipated even though he had completed school.


    I concluded that the only safe way out was to get adopted by Sherry disguised as my relative. I let her disguise as my aunt from my father side after looking at his photos and created fake papers to prove her identity. After everything was ready, we popped to the orphanage.


    We both then went towards the Matron''s office and knocked.


    Matron "Come in."


    We both slowly entered her room.


    Matron "Back from school already Charles? Tell me about your year. I hope you had lots of fun. Who is this young lady?"


    "I arrived in London just this morning. School was good. I found out who my parents were there. They were alumni of the school and through the school I was able to find a lot about my family history. I also learned that I had a relative alive. This is my Aunt. She had no knowledge of my birth and after learning about me, she wants me to live with her. So she came here to thank you and then try to adopt me."


    Sherry "Good Evening, Matron. I am Elizabeth Falken. His father was my brother. I was studying in France when I heard about the death of my brother and by the time I came back to London I could not locate my sister-in-law. I searched for her for a couple of years until finally giving up hope. I was so happy when Charles contacted me through a letter. He is just like his father and has grown up to be a fine young man. I thank you for that."


    Matron "I am happy you found your Aunt, Charles. Since you are closely related you just have to show some proofs and sign some papers and Charles can go live with you. We all will be sad about Charles leaving us and miss him but it was bound to happen. I wish you well and I am sure you will be some one great in the future."


    Then all we had to do was sign some papers and show some identity proofs. It was quite easy to confound the matron into believing that the documents were real. It took about an hour in total and I was finally free to live on my own. I made sure that nothing in the papers would cause suspicion when the Matron checked them later in the future. Since I was getting adopted by a relative, not much work was needed.


    Sherry took out my check book and wrote a check for 50,000 pounds for the orphanage. It was all the money I had balance in my account which included the dividends I got from my investment. It also included the money that was deposited into my trust vault on my birthday this. Sherry exchanged 4500G into pounds and deposited it into my bank account. This was all the free cash I had for now which I could donate. I will donate some more after I reach my majority.


    "Matron, accept this donation from me for the orphanage. It is a small token of my appreciation for taking care of Charles for these many years. Use this to make more children as happy as Charles was when living here." Sherry said while she handed her the check.


    She tried to refuse but after a little persuasion from me she accepted the check and thanked Sherry.


    Finally I stood up and said, " Well Matron, Thank you for everything. Goodbye. I will drop by whenever I am nearby."


    I went to my room packed everything and vacated it. After saying goodbyes to all the caretakers I left the orphanage and Sherry popped me to my house. She had already cleaned up my parent''s room for me.


    After unpacking I made a schedule for my holidays. I had two months and I was going to make use of every day of it. I did not plan going on a vacation until I was sure that I could protect myself as I wanted to tour the magical part of different countries. I decided to wait until I was NEWT level in all subject atleast before going to other countries.


    I spent the holidays mainly finishing potion studies till NEWT level in the two months that I had. I did this because I needed various ingredients for my advanced potions and I could not get those easily while I was in Hogwarts. Here Sherry would just pop and buy them for me. Potion making was very simple if you learned it the right way. Instead of memorising recipes one must understand the ingredients thoroughly first. Once you know what is the effect of a specific ingredient, you must understand what happens when two of them are mixed together. In this way you can experiment and learn potions very easily. The various cutting and dicing practises are used depending on the potency of ingredients required in the potions. Once you totally understand the various magical ingredients and their intermixing you can make any potion that you want.


    When I am not practising potions, I was meditating to find my inner animal. It was a slow process but after two months of trying I was able to find my inner animal. It was a Peregrine Falcon. Quite fitting as it was the spirit animal of my family. I couldn''t control my happiness after learning about it. My requirement for my inner animal was it should not be something like tiger and wolf which cannot be found in cities. It would be easy for others to guess that something is wrong and you cannot sneak around using it. The Peregrine falcon is known for its exceptional eyesight and its speed. So with it I could spy on others from high up in the sky and could sneak attack on my enemies by diving from the sky at very high speeds. I can also say for sure that each person can only have one animagus transformation since you can have only one inner animal.


    These were the important things I did during the holidays. Rest of the things I did were not worth mentioning.

 Chapter 34 - Second Year

    I was once again in an empty compartment in Hogwarts express making my way towards the school. This year was an important year. This year many important characters in the story would join the school. Most notable of the characters are the Fred and George Weasley and Cedric Diggory. Some others were Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet, Lee Jordan and Roger Davies. Some future strong members of Slytherin Quidditch team would also begin this year.


    The opening feast was the same without any changes and then my second school year began.


    My activities for second year were already planned out.


    To continue to act and behave like last year in all classes. To score similar results as last year but improve a little bit in practical. Not too much but I want to slowing show power equal to talented students by the 7th year. It would not cause much attention but I needed to be seen as equals by others when I joined the Wizengamot and not looked down upon.


    To reach NEWT level in all subjects taught at Hogwarts and try to reach NEWT level in the other subjects too.


    To find a way to remove or change my magical signature from spells so that I can prank all the bullies and make sure that it does not lead back to me. With the Weasley twins in town they would take the blame. I did not worry for them as Dumbledore would make sure that his supporters in Gryffindor got off with a few detentions.


    The school year passed quietly without any drama. It was the more boring than the last year. I noticed that I had lost the surveillance of both professors and the purebloods. It seemed like that had lost their interest in me. Nott still avoided me which kept the Slytherins from causing trouble for me.


    The twins had started pranking this year itself. It looked like they did not waste their earlier years and spent it reading. The pranks they came up with required above 1st year magical knowledge. So I had to be careful and not get caught in any of their pranks. Their main targets were Slytherin so other houses were mostly safe. But this had led to more bullying of Gryffindor by Slytherins in retaliation and that was not good.


    I had found a way to change my magical signature while performing spells with a wand. It was a rune chain which can be carved onto a wand which would scramble the magical signature of any spells cast using it making it impossible for it to be traced back to me. I could not carve it on my wand or my parents wands as I did not want to take a risk destroying them. Instead I found a wand which was an average fit for me in Room of Hidden things and decided to carve on that. I decided to carve during this year''s holidays and from next year onwards I would cause enough chaos in Hogwarts until people stopped Bullying or the professors took action.


    I had finished NEWT level studies in all Hogwarts subjects. I even studied Divination to understand prophecies and understand whether I could kill Voldemort or not and change history.


    From my research, I understood that the prophecies are very vague and most of the prophecies do not come true even during the lifetime of the Seer who gave out the prophecy. This can be understood by looking at the number of prophesy spheres which are still lit in the Department of Mysteries and comparing the very few number of true seers born in the world in the past century. So the prophecies do not come into action most of the time. A prophesy told today may only be fulfilled only after a 1000 years in some cases.


    The prophecy between Voldemort and Harry Potter came into action only because Dumbledore manipulated some events to make sure that the prophecy came into action. Since this was not the canon world but a dark one, Dumbledore most probably led the potters to their death when he found that he could win the war by sacrificing them. This prophecy may have referred to some other Dark Lord in some other country many years in the future and some other kid who was born at the end of seventh month of some other calendar whose parents had fought the other Dark Lord. That kid would have had the power to vanquish his time''s dark lord.


    There were many different meanings to the words of the prophecy. This made it foolish to act according to a prophecy. Prophecies were something that always came true so there was no benefit in playing with it. The best thing to do is to hope that none of the Prophecies are about you so that you don''t become fate''s pawn.


    Now that the prophesy was in action, I could not kill Voldemort directly. I had to leave it to fate or I had to manipulate things in such a way that harry indirectly kills Voldemort. The prophecy does not say that Harry kills Riddle just that he has a hand in vanquishing him.


    I believe the prophecy was real as otherwise Harry Potter would not have survived his childhood or survive the dangerous Hogwarts years. Any other kid would have died on the cold November night on which he was placed at the doorstep due to hypothermia itself even before all the beatings. Fate was making sure he survived.


    Now coming back to my academic achievements of this year. I also reached NEWT level in curse breaking and warding as it was related to Ancient Runes in which was already at NEWT level. I was also NEWT level in Law and languages (French and Spanish) already. All that were left were Healing, Duelling and Alchemy.


    I also completely became one with my inner animal during this time but I did not dare undergo the transformation now in school since I did not know if my physical appearance would change after the transformation. I could only do the transformation during holidays and explain any physical changes with a growth spurt.


    The DADA teacher this year died. He was an old wizard and there was not much surprise when he died in his sleep near the end of the school year. The curse must have just made his death sooner by a few months.


    At the end of the term fest it was Slytherin winning House cup again but Ravenclaws won the Quidditch Cup by some luck.


    The train journey was without incident and I reached my house safely. The removal of 4500G from my trust vault was handled by Sherry on my birthday and had been converted into pounds and deposited into my account. It was much better to deposit in the muggle bank as I would gain interest which was not there in Gringotts. I told her to do it every year until my majority even without me reminding or instructing her.

 Chapter 35 - Animagus Transformation

    Next day early morning I traveled to a secluded mountain outside London to complete my animagus transformation for the first time. After finding a secluded spot I started the transformation.


    The transformation was very easy. I concentrated on my inner animal and willed my body to change. Slowly my body began to shrink and feathers began to form on it. The transformation was a slow and painful one and I could see as each part of my body changed. It was expected due to it being my first time transforming. Slowly my hands turned into wings until after a painfully long time I completely transformed into a Peregrine Falcon. I stumbled around trying to walk around the mountain top until I got proper bearing of my new temporary body. My walk was more like hopping but I will call it walking for convenience sake.


    I moved around feeling my new body. I was excited while feeling my wings and trying to fly. I also felt like I had to complete certain tasks as a falcon to gain the most benefits from the Animagus after transforming back into my human body. I had learned how to fly, hunt and move around like a falcon during the time I became one with my inner animal in my mind so it was time to put it into practise and fly for real. As it was my first time, I jumped from the edge of a cliff while flapping my wings and tried to fly into the sky before I hit the ground and became severely injured. I had Sherry watching out for me if anything like that happened. However Sherry was not needed as flying came naturally to me and I flew high into the sky and started circling alone the mountain looking around. The feeling of wind while flying was amazing. The flight was much better than the one I had during the training in my mind. I flew to the clouds and started searching for my first prey from there. Even from that height I could clearly see the mountain top and trees. When I saw something moving around the bushes on the mountain after some time, I dived down with my top speed with my talons ready to strike. The feeling while diving down from that height was exhilarating and was better than the fastest rollercoasters. My talons connected and the snake which was moving around was killed in a single strike. I went to the grass and clean the blood off my talons and then again flew into the sky. I repeated shooting up and diving down routines many times and also flew around the city till I was tired and satisfied. Then I landed on the mountain and changed back. The process of changing back was also a slow one and I could see as my I transformed back into my original appearance. Without noticing I had spent the whole day flying around. I did not even feel the huger as I was that excited to fly around. It was night time now and I was too tired to check the changes in my body. I called Sherry and she popped me to my room. Then I fell asleep directly.


    Next day when I woke up I went directly to look at the changes in my body. The overall appearance was same with some changes. I grew taller by a couple of inches and I felt that my body was stronger and my bones harder. My athletic body still looked the same despite the changes.


    My eyesight was now very good. I could see farther than normal. The world also looked more brighter and clearer to me. It seemed like I gained the ability to see the UV spectrum of light like most birds. I did not gain it completely only some partial sight. But the advantage was that I gained the ability to see in the dark which was amazing. Mage sight with falcon eyesight made me was much more powerful as now I could even see the magic through the walls. I had to test it out to see its limits.


    Looking in the mirror after transforming into my animagus, I saw that I looked similar to an ordinary peregrine falcon. I had the same blue gray wings and a curved black beak. I was a little disappointing because I wanted to stand out. I guess looking normal also had the advantage of being inconspicuous which was what I required with my animagus so I was not too disappointed.


    So now my holidays were spent flying around in my falcon form and practising the transformation until I could completely transform in seconds. It gave a soothing feeling flying around in the morning just before sunrise and also got rid of my drowsiness. After more testing I felt that the falcon became more powerful and faster as my magic grew stronger. So I felt there was a chance that one day my animagus would go on to become as strong as magical birds with the increase in my magical reserves and then be known as magical animagus. But I could feel that I had a long way to go before I reached that level.


    The other thing I achieved during my holidays was that I reached NEWT level in Alchemy. It had to be done during holidays because of the same reason as Potions as I needed many kinds of metals to try transmutation on. Now only Healing and Duelling was left.


    I also finished carving the wand I would use for my pranks. I called it the Mischief wand as causing mischief was the wands main purpose for now. I tested it and it performed wonderfully. The magical signature from its spells were untraceable. It was a unique magical signature and I did not have to worry about someone getting punished for my deeds. The wand was only a above average fit for me but that was enough since I needed it mostly for pranks and the spells for it did need to be strong.

 Chapter 36 - Third Year and Halloween Prank - I

    Holidays were now over and it was time for third year. I chose Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures as my Electives. It was compulsory otherwise I would have not taken any electives as it would eat up my free time. There was only one year left till Hogwarts became dangerous. So this year was very important to strengthen myself and after this year it was going to be a little difficult to sneak around Hogwarts with all the danger lurking around the corners. I wanted to be ready for the challenge.


    The notable characters joining Hogwarts this year were Katie Bell and Cho Chang. There were also some other characters joining that were named in the canon but they were not too important.


    My plans for this year were to reach NEWT level in Healing and Duelling. I also had to learn spells from the Auror preparatory school booklet which I found in my library. I don''t know how it found its way there as neither of my parents were Aurors and I will never know but it contained a lot of useful information about Aurors and some of their internal laws.


    Next step was Mastery studies and at the top of my list were Ancient Runes, Warding and Curse Breaking. They could be studied simultaneously and it would be very useful in the coming years.


    I also had to improve my legilimency more by practising on 7th years who had good Occlumency shields. I had to practise being able to go through their shields without them noticing.


    I had to find a way to cleanse the Ravenclaws Diadem of the Horcrux. Researching on Horcrux can be left for later years but this was more important. The Diadem was rumoured to increase processing speed of the brain and also provide eidetic memory. It was what I needed to speed up my mastery studies. Otherwise it would take me at least 2 years to complete mastery studies in a single subject according to my estimation. The Diadem would speed up my academic progress by many times.


    Another thing to do was start practising Apparition and try to master it. I would be able to reach NEWT level in Healing in 3-4 months and that was enough for me to heal apparition accidents.


    A few weeks passed quietly after the opening feast with not much disturbance. I was preparing for the Grand opening of my pranking days. I planned to use a lot of spells I personally crafted for the pranks.


    Spell crafting a lot of knowledge in Ancient Runes and Arithmency. The spell was designed using Arithmency while the wand movement was created using the knowledge of Ancient Runes. The naming of the spell was just for young users to concentrate on the spell and was not too important for the spell itself. Wand movement which was designed to move our magic in a specific pattern and intent were the most important parts of a spell. One thing I noticed was that whenever I used the number 3 or 7 during the spell creation, the spell gave better results. So if I designed a prank spell to last 7 days then it would be much harder to remove it than I spell which was designed to last just one day. If the number of flicks with a wand during a spell casting was 3 or 7 then it was much stronger than other spells. This proved that 3 and 7 were strong magical numbers.


    What mattered most to me while creating a spell was to make sure that the spells did not give out light like the accio and levitation charm. I did not want the origin of the spell to be seen by anyone. It took a lot of work to modify prank spells and make them cast without any light but it was worth it. I also designed spells in such a way that a simple ''finite'' could not counter the effects.


    <General POV>


    There was a bang above the doors of the great hall and fumes of smoke suddenly appeared. The smoke cleared quickly and everyone was met with the sight of 4 howlers like letters each with a different design which resembled faces of animals. They were similar to the mascots of the 4 houses. There was a lion, a badger, a raven and a snake.


    The Lion spoke first in a deep voice, "Hello everyone, I hope everyone is having a good time. You can call me Leo."


    The Badger then spoke in a kind motherly voice, "I am Stripes."


    The Raven spoke in a silky ladylike voice, "Raven."


    The snake spoke, "You can call me Slyde."


    Leo "We are the new Marauders."


    The was a gasp from the professors while Snape''s face looked red with anger. The Weasley twins started jumping with joy and doing crazy things.


    Raven "It seems some of you people know about the original Marauders and their antics. Let me give you a history lesson about them for the sake of others. It was a group of 4 students who attended Hogwarts and were famous for their pranking skills. They attended the school at a time when He-who-must-not-be-named was had started the wizarding war and the dark side was rising. So there were lot of attacks on students in the name of bullying by some of the children of dark families. No punishment was given to the perpetrators and the other students started fearing these bullies. These 4 friends did not like what was happening in the school and decided to retaliate against the bullies using pranks. They repeatedly pranked the bullies until they gave up their attacks on the other weak students. They were heroes of the victims at a time when they had given up all hope since the professors did not do anything to help them."


    I know the marauders were not the completely good side. They were bullies too but they bullied using too many pranks which instead of physically hurting their targets, humiliated them. Their favourite targets were the Slytherins who were coincidentally the bullies and this reduced the bullying even though this was not the main aim of the marauders. I am just using their name and praising then just for the effect it had on Snape. I could also help Harry in the future by using my Marauders.


    Stripes "We have noticed that the bullying that the original marauders reduced in Hogwarts has increased once again. So we four have decided to continue their legacy to prank all the wicked including staff members who are encouraging the bullies."


    Leo "Yes we are going to prank the hell out of the snakes."


    Slyde "Shut up Leo. Some Lions are bullies too so we are going to prank them too. We are going to prank all the student who take their bullying to extreme harmful levels."

 Chapter 37 - Halloween Prank -II

    There was a lot of excited whisperings among the students after the messages were completed. Even some of the teachers were discussing the event amongst themselves.


    Dumbledore did not say anything and was calmly eating his food. Flitwick and Minerva were smiling.


    Snape could not control his anger anymore. He stood up from his seat and shouted, "Stop the drama this instant. Just wait. As soon as I find out about the identities of you four, I will make sure that you will spend rest of the year scrubbing cauldrons in the dungeon and then get expelled."


    Leo "Hey Slyde. I won our bet. You now owe me 5 Galleons. I told you that Snivellous was going to be the first to lash out despite his good emotional control."


    The children started snickering after hearing the nick name for Snape while Snape tried to destroy the Howlers. He was unsuccessful as the letters were protected by some shield.


    Leo "Didn''t think we would remember the name the original marauders had for you? We are trying to copy them so we made sure that we researched a lot about them. You were their favourite target weren''t you Greezy git."


    Raven "You couldn''t get revenge on them so you decided to take revenge of the students of this school especially the Gryffindor. We have monitored your behaviour and we do not like you."


    Slyde "Since you are responsible for encouraging the Slytherin house to bully others and also responsible for them not get punished, we decided you would be one of our guinea pigs for testing our new prank spells. Enjoy the smile on the face you will have for the rest of the week. Who know it might change your character for the better."


    Leo "Hey twins, I challenge you to a prank war. Let''s see who gets the most laughs. Goodbye"


    The twins said, "We accept your challenge."


    Raven "Boys remember that only harmless pranks are allowed. We don''t want anyone getting hurt except the bullies. If you don''t want to become one of our targets, make sure that you follow that rule. You don''t want to be on my bad side. Goodbye"


    It was said with a sickly sweet voice that made the twins gulp due to fear.


    There was another bang and the whole great hall was covered in smoke. After the smoke dissipated, everyone was shocked. All the students had their appearance and robes altered to match the colours of another Hogwarts house.


    The Gryffindors now had green hair with Slytherin robes while Slytherins had Red hair with Gryffindor Robes. Similarly, Hufflepuffs had blue hair and Ravenclaws had orange hair. The professors were not affected by the pranks and some of them had disappointed expression on their faces.


    What made everyone laugh was Snape. He was smiling. It was the first time anyone had seen him smile. Everyone could see from his face that he was angry but still he had a smile on his face. This contradictory expression made all the students including the Slytherin laugh. Snape tried to remove the spell for some time before giving up and storming out of the great hall in a hurry. Everyone could hear him cursing the marauders as he went past them.


    Dumbledore stood up and said, "What a brilliant application of your studies. Make sure that the functioning of the school is not affected by the pranks otherwise I would have to take action against you. Now let''s continue the Halloween feat."


    With that everyone stopped the laughter and discussions and concentrated on their dinner. After dinner everyone went back to their House common rooms. Some tried to unsuccessfully get rid of the effects of the prank spell while others just accepted their appearance.


    The spells were modified versions of existing spells. I modified the Howler for the letters. It now spoke using real time words. Whatever I wrote on a parchment would be spoken by the Howler at the same time. So during the prank, I was writing what each letter would say from under the table and the letters were loudly speaking the words with suitable expressions.


    For the four different voices used, I modified the Sonorus charm to speak at different frequencies. I tested out different modifications until I selected my favourite four voices. Now the professors would be looking for a group of genius 4 students to put blame on.


    The disadvantage of the spells I used was that only one howler could speak at a time as I was giving real time instructions. So I was quite busy. To not get noticed, I used notice-me-not charm on my hand while writing.


    The prank on the students was a potion I had mixed in with all their drinks earlier, it activated on my signal. For Snape, I used the cover of the smoke to send the spell at him. I could see clearly despite the smoke and thus I was able to aim correctly. I was not able to remove the light from that spell so the cover of smoke was required. The spell would last for 1 week and there was no counter for it. It would be a fun week for everyone.


    I was now sitting in the common room with my friends and discussing the prior events.


    Damien "So what do you think of all this, Charles?"


    I replied "I don''t think Orange hair suits me very well. I think green would have been much better."


    Elena "I think so too. Orange looks the worst. I would not have minded any of the other 3."


    Damien "I agree but I was asking about the group called new marauders."


    Elena "I support them too. I also want to get my hands on the spells they used. It felt like the howlers were alive and they even spoke to Snape and the Weasley''s."


    Damien "I am looking forward to seeing the smiling Snape for the rest of the week. He is going to have to deduct a lot of points during this week as no one would be able to control their laughter around him."


    I added "I want to learn the identities of the 4. Those spells were new and if the 4 crafted it themselves then they must have above NEWT level knowledge. I would like to learn from them."


    Damien "I don''t think they will come out in the open. They would not want Snape to find them. I am sleepy after that huge feast. I am going to sleep. let''s continue the discussion tomorrow. Goodnight."


    So we decided to end the discussion and I went to my room. I called Sherry and told her to find who all continued Bullying event after my threat. It was easy for her to find the culprits as she could ask the other elves without causing any suspecion. I would have my list of targets ready tomorrow morning.

 Chapter 38 - Pranking Days

    Sherry had the list ready when I woke up the next morning. I told her to add names till afternoon and give me the final list then. There was no fun in doing the pranks in the morning because everyone had their breakfast at erratic timings. I needed the tables full of students before I pranked thus I chose the Lunch time for my pranks.


    It seemed like no one had taken my threats seriously because I had a long list of more than 20 people by the time for Lunch or maybe someone like Snape must have ?ssured them that the new Marauders will be caught during the next prank. Anyways, I was happy that I got some targets. I was hoping that the bullies would not take my threats seriously so that I would have targets for my practice. Otherwise all the time I spent making prank spells would have been wasted.


    So during Lunch while everyone was calmly eating there was a bang like last night and Leo became visible to everyone.


    Leo "Hey guys did you miss me? It seemed like some of you did because in spite of our threats last night some people decided to not care and continued to bully some helpless people."


    Then the letter started producing smoke, became red and Leo had a demon like face. It had the d?s?r?d effect as it instilled some fear in all the students. Leo then continued with an angry voice, "Were our threats last night a joke to you that you continued your behaviour. If you like jokes so much then I curse you to become a joke for the rest of your life."


    There were bangs across the Slytherin table at 25 different seats. The 25 students on those seats now had their faces transformed into a clown face similar to the clowns at circuses. Their face were covered with white make up, they had a red nose, red hair and everything. This was a simple prank but it would give the best laughs. Nott was also among the ones who got pranked.


    Everyone was shocked at the sight. Then Leo after returning to his normal appearance started laughing loudly which caused everyone else to join in and make fun of the prank victims.


    Leo "Haha. Raven created this spell just last night. She copied it from the muggle world. People with these faces are called Jokers there. We were looking for some Guinea pigs to test it on. So thank you for volunteering."


    Snape who failed to control his anger shouted, "Turn them back this instant or else I would see to it that you are expelled from this school. Also remove this ridiculous curse that you put on me."


    Leo "Your face is too funny Snivellous. The smile looks good on your face. If I were you I would keep it for the rest of my life. I don''t know how your students would be able to control their laughter in your classes after seeing your new look, I know I won''t be able to. I think by the weekend we will be having all the houses points in the negatives for the first time in years. Don''t disappoint me Snivellous because we have a betting pool going on and I said it will happen in 4 days. As for your threats, we will consider after we get caught which I don''t think is possible. Goodbye and have fun."


    Leo then disappeared with a bang. Snape cursed and left the hall in anger again. The laughter continued even after Leo left. It was the first time the wizarding world had seen clowns and the muggle borns were explaining the clowns to their friends who had no idea. The bullies ran away from the hall after seeing their faces in a conjured mirror. They went to Madam Pomfrey and did not leave the infirmary for the next three days.


    True to what Leo predicted, Snape started deducting points from everyone who showed even a trace of smile on their faces during his classes. So by the week end every house except the Slytherin house who used their pure blood training to control their laughter had their points total in the negatives with Gryffindor going as far a negative 200.


    The next few days passed quietly until some Gryffindors thought that it was their time to rule since only Slytherins got pranked. To prank them, Slyde appeared during one lunch and then turned their hairs into baby rubber snakes and their faces green. He just appeared, cursed the bullies, and left. He did not say anything since that was the kind of character I wanted others to believe Slyde had. A no nonsense guy.


    The next targets were the Ravenclaw bullies which consisted of only girls. The reason for their bullying was jealousy for others scoring higher than them but the main reason was taking out their frustrations on others. They were too frustrated with all the studying and they found targets who looked carefree and took their frustration out on them by bullying. So my prank on them was not being able to study for 3 days. It will give them the much needed break while also pranking them.


    I made it so that they would only see dancing letters when they opened books for reading. They could still listen to lectures and take notes but they could not read their notes. This was a tough spell as there were too many conditions to satisfy but I still pulled it off. The targets were angry at first but at the end of the prank they were much calmer and stopped bullying.


    The pranks continued for some days with no deterrent effect on the bullies who were searching for the perpetrators and still attacking the muggleborns but as the days passed while getting pranked frequently and no one was able to find us to retaliate, they slowly gave up bullying just so that they could calmly eat their food and not worry about getting attacked and humiliated around every corner.


    I cursed Snape every alternate week with the same spell just so that he focused more on finding our identity and less time on belittling students in his classes.

 Chapter 39 - Remainder of Third Year

    By Christmas I had completed my NEWTs in Healing and Duelling and started practising apparition. Room of Requirements provided me a special space to practice that allowed apparition in spite of the anti-apparition wards of Hogwarts. I could not apparate outside from here just inside the room due to the wards. So I could not practise long distance Apparition in Hogwarts and had to practise that during holidays.


    Cleansing the Diadem was simple enough. The room provided me with a book about Horcruxes which contained a ritual that I could use to transfer the soul into another container. It did not require any ingredients other than the new container for the soul piece. The only requirement was that the container needed to be a magical artefact otherwise it would not be able to house the soul piece. It was easy to find one in the Room of Hidden Things using my mage sight. I used a magical gem that I found in the room as the new container for the soul piece and performed the ritual. It was successful and I gave the Horcrux to Sherry so that she could store it away safely in my house.


    I performed another ritual on the Diadem to cleanse it of all the dark presence on it. After all that, I had a beautiful and perfectly working magical Diadem for my use. When I wore the Diadem on my head for the first time, I felt invincible. I could calculate complex problems in my mind very quickly as if I was a computer. Going through my memories also required very little time while wearing this on my head.


    After I tried studying while wearing the Diadem I was surprised on finding the speed at which I finished reading and understanding a book. I felt I could finish my mastery in the three fields related to Ancient Runes by Christmas next year with this speed of reading. My estimation was that it would take at least 3 years for me to finish all three masteries but now I could do it in a third of the time.


    So the days passed in Hogwarts with some pranking every now and then but otherwise studying. Soon it was the End of the term feast again.


    My pranking had inspired a lot of people to take it up and it started a prank war between the Slytherin and Gryffindor. Slytherin bullies started pranking instead of bullying when they found out I did not retaliate when they pranked. This led to both of the houses losing a lot of points and in the end Ravenclaw won the House Cup.


    My studies were going along very well with the help of the Ravenclaw''s Diadem. The speed of progress was as I had expected and I was sure to complete the masteries by Christmas next year.


    I was now close to a master in Legilimency. Next year I would try it on teachers who did not have lord rings or were not master occlumens. I was hoping by this time next year I would be a master Legilimens.


    My apparition practice had brought fruits. I could now apparate easily in short distances instantaneously without any problems. Thankfully I did not splinch myself during my practices. I could have healed myself easily with the help of Sherry but it was troublesome. Now I needed to just practise large distance apparition during holidays.


    Bullying had reduced a lot due to my efforts. The school became more fun for everyone. Even the bullies, who found pranking to be more fun. There still some people who made school difficult for the muggleborns but I knew nothing I did could do anything about that. They stopped hurting them and that was enough progress for me.


    At the End of the year feast, the new marauders again made an appearance.


    Leo "It was a fun year. I hope everyone liked it as much as I did."


    Stripes "We are happy to see that bullying has reduced considerably and our efforts were not in vain. We hope that you will keep it like that for the next year too."


    Raven "Good bye and enjoy your holidays."


    Slyde "We will meet again next year."


    Then they disappeared in the cover of some sparkling charms that dazzled the audience. There was loud applause from the students and some students loudly thanked the new marauders for making their school lives better.


    After the feast there was the train ride and then I finally reached my house. First thing on my to-do list was to power the wards of the house. It was a long time pending and now that I was NEWT level in and near mastery in warding I could do it easily.


    I went to the ward stone of the house and checked the wards on it. The ward stone was not powered by a ley line and contained just basic wards. I guess the warding was done by my parents and they did not know much about warding. I decided to start anew and removed all the wards from the ward stone before adding new ones. I added all the protective wards that I could think of including anti-animagus wards and intent wards which would tell me if any person who was inside my house had ill will towards me. It was now almost impossible for people to enter my house without my permission only some very powerful wizards or ward breakers could enter my premises without my permission.

 Chapter 40 - Overseas Holiday Trip

    This holiday I finally decided to go on a much needed vacation with Sherry. My destination was France. It was close by and had many beautiful sites and beaches. I decided the best way to travel for me without any complicated process was flying using my animagus which would be a fun flight too. So next week a falcon took off from my house and flew towards south. Its destination France.


    I reached Paris in only one hour. The flight over the sea and many farm lands was fun and the sights were magnificent. The feeling I got while perching on the top of the Eiffel tower and looking down at the beautiful city of Paris was amazing. My first stop was Gringotts to take control of my mother''s vault. The process was quick. All it needed was a drop of blood to verify the relation. There was no account manager. The vault did not contain any items just money. The total was 15,460G. Even with all these years of usage the vault still had this much money left in it. I decided to keep the vault open as it may come handy in the future. I exchanged some Francs from Gringotts for my expenses during the trip and left to find a place to stay.


    I booked a room in a good hotel in Paris for my stay. I was now tall enough to be mistaken for an ?du?t and all I needed to do was apply some glamour charms on my face to fool the Hotel receptionist into believing that I was an ?du?t. I decided to keep the ?du?t appearance for the whole trip as it would avoid a lot of trouble for me during the trip. I visited the various museums and art galleries in France during my stay there. In my past life I always dreamed about going on a overseas trip to other countries, seeing the different beautiful sights and trying out their cuisine. So I was fulfilling my dreams during this trip and this made the trip a whole lot fun for me. I also bought a new wardrobe while going around the city as I found the clothes here much more fashionable.


    The magical part of France was beautiful but essentially not much different from Britain. The equivalent of Diagon Alley in France looked much posher and welcoming than the run down shops of Diagon Alley. The sad thing was that the things sold were the same just in a different language. There were same restrictive laws here as in Britain. I spent a week in Paris enjoying the cities sites and cuisine with a disguised Sherry. The Eiffel tower and the various palaces were fascinating to visit.


    I also used my time here in Paris to collect mastery books on Alchemy since France was famous for its Alchemy knowledge due to the Flamels living here.


    I did not even consider visiting the Flamels and asking them to teach me Alchemy because I did not know what kind of people they were. The Flamels made the Philosopher''s stone which produced Elixir of life. They were the only ones to have succeeded making one and I did not even know how to even go about trying to make one. But from what I know, Alchemy followed the law of equivalent exchange. It was followed in all the metal transmutations I have done till now. So for the creation of philosopher''s stone, the Flamel''s must have sacrificed either lives of human beings, plants or animals. Since I did not know the method, I could not know for sure. So staying away from them was better. They had helped out during the Grindelwald war so they could be good people but I did not know for sure.


    After Paris, I travelled around various beaches in France. The Falken family had a summer resort here but since I have not reached majority, I cannot find its location. I just relaxed and enjoyed myself in all the famous tourist beaches. There was no chance of me being sun burned due to magic so I spent most of my time outside. I spent another two week visiting all the different beautiful beaches, trying out all the water sports and relaxing. It was a much needed rest for me as I had not spent much time relaxing and having fun ever since I reincarnated into this world.


    Before leaving for London, I decided to check out the Knockturn Alley equivalent of France too which to my surprise was not a gloomy and dark place. It was same as the other Alley just filled with dark wizards. I had not yet started my research on Dark Magic due to the hectic schedule I had for the past year but since my NEWT studies was over, I decided that I was not in much rush anymore and spend some of my time this year on Dark Arts research.


    Since I did not own any books on Dark Arts, I decided to buy some from France first and then check out the ones in England after returning. I only spent a single day going through a lot of books and buying whichever I found interesting. By the end of the day, I was owner of books on Blood Magic, Ritual Magic, Soul Magic, Dark Potions and Dark Curses. I even avoided touching these books directly because they felt dangerous and some may have deadly curses on them. I used Dragon hide gloves just to go through them and see if the book was real. I also found a couple of books on battle magic which I readily bought. The books were costly and all together I spent 3000G on books that day.


    After a long and relaxing stay in France, I was back in London. The overseas trip was still only for 3 weeks. I made it short because I wanted to check up on the Boy-Who-Lived before he joined Hogwarts. I wanted it to be longer trip next year, so I was going to choose a much bigger country as destination.


    After reaching England, I went shopping at Diagon Alley. My Hogwarts letter for 4th year had already arrived so I had some shopping to do. I also used the visit to buy an OWL, as my friends were bothering me to buy one so that we could send letters to each other during the holidays. It was a strong and powerful male Eagle Owl. I named it Casper. I told Sherry to take all my stuff including Casper to the house while I went to Knockturn Alley and bought some more books on Dark Arts. I was disappointed on not finding anything unique books and in the end I only bought a couple of new books.

 Chapter 41 - No. 4 Privet Drive

    I woke up early morning at about 4 am on August 2nd and after having a short breakfast, decided to visit Harry. He must be back at his relative''s place by now after his Hogwarts shopping. My decision on whether I should help him will depend on his character.


    From what I have read, there were three scenarios when children grew up in an abusive home. First, they break down due to the physical and emotional abuse and live life following orders of their abusers like slaves. Second, they rebel and start having dark thoughts like Tom Riddle which will lead them to a Dark path. Third, they learn to face their troubles head on, become cunning to avoid abuse and learn to adapt to any dangerous situation.


    If Harry was of the third kind, I would provide my help to him now. If he was of the first or second kind, I will leave him to the wolves and let them play with his life. I would only help if he had a strong will power as otherwise he was bound to fail in the upcoming harsh challenges of his life.


    My reason for helping him was simple. He was fated to become as strong wizard in the future and have similar magical strength to that of Voldemort. He was also going to inherit the Potter and Black Lordships which would make him have double my number of votes in the Wizengamot as both of them were Most Ancient and Noble House. The two houses also had many alliances. These two reasons would make him both magically and politically powerful thus having him see me as a mentor and someone he can trust will help me a lot in the future.


    I apparated to Little Whinging, Surrey and made my way towards No. 4 Privet Drive. I activated my mage sight and disillusioned myself when I reached Privet Drive and walked towards the House no. 4. I knew I had reached the correct house when I saw a house that was covered with wards. It was about 4:30 am and everyone was fast asleep.


    First I started going through the wards that were protecting the Golden Boy.


    I was proved right when I saw that there were no Blood wards protecting the house. There were also no signs of there ever being one in the past. Dumbledore could have used the protection created by Lily Potter''s sacrificial magic to erect a blood ward around the house but he could not have done it because for the ward to activate, Petunia needed to accept Harry as part of the family first. Another thing was that if such a ward that protected the Harry from outside harm existed, then Vernon and Marge Dursley who had ill will towards Harry would not have been able to enter the house due to the wards. So Vernon after going for his job the next morning would not have been able to enter his own house that evening after coming back from his job. So I was sure that Dumbledore did not have the option of placing a Blood ward over the house.


    Now coming to the wards that were present. I found the basic ward protection on the house, which included an anti-apparition and anti-portkey ward. There was a ward that did not allow anything related to Dark Magic to enter the house. So this ward protected the house from the Death Eaters. There were two wards that detected magic. One controlled magic detection ward that I think was placed by the Ministry of magic which would be able to inform the ministry about any magic that was consciously performed in the house. I think this was responsible for the ministry detecting the magic done by Dobby. There was another magic detection ward that detected all magic done at the house which I think was placed by Dumbledore so that he could be informed about all magic done in the house including high levels of accidental magic.


    The wards protected Harry''s life from all outside magical harm. That was good. But the thing that was not good was what was powering up these wards. Wards need magic to power it up, it could be either through the ley lines or periodic power up done by wizards. Here there were no ley lines so someone had to power these wards up. What horrified me was that, that I could see what was powering up the wards of the house through my mage sight. The power source was the under developed core of the 11-year-old Harry Potter. This was very bad for Harry''s core. From my calculations, the wards were using about 30% of Harry''s current core to power them up. These 10 year, the wards were drawing continuous power from Harry''s core to keep it strong so his core was always in use.


    This was bad for the core. I am surprised that he is alive after powering up the wards from the young age. He should have died due to magical exhaustion as there was no way a baby had enough magic to power these strong wards. The current 30% of magic must have been way more than the reserves of a baby Harry. Fate was really helping him survive. There was one good side for Harry due to this. The constant use of magic by the wards was similar to the magic exercise I did to make my magic grow faster. So his magic core should be much larger than that of the peers. This method could only be used for Harry as anyone else would die within one week of the exercise and it was only because of the prophesy was he even alive. I don''t think Dumbledore meant for this to happen. I think he must have not thought it through before he set up these wards or he did not have enough knowledge on warding.


    Now it was time to enter the property. Before I entered the property, I decided to adjust the two magic detection wards. I could not deactivate the two wards as it would alert the people who added the wards so I changed area it was tracking to the house opposite to the Dursley house.


    I quietly unlocked the door and made my way towards the first floor smallest bedroom. I chose early morning because everyone would be asleep and I could check Harry before he woke up. I opened the door to the room and closed it softly behind me. I saw the smallest 11-year-old boy that I have ever seen sleeping on the bed in the room. For safety sake I spelled him to make sure that he does not wake up. I went near him and started applying Diagnostic charms on him.

 Chapter 42 - Diagnosis

    I found a long list of problems with his body. It was so long that I could separate the injuries into parts.


    His main problems were physical. He was facing severe malnutrition due to his stay here and would need to take nutrition potion for half a year just to correct that and let him grow into his normal height. A few improperly treated bones ranging from small cracks to big breaks. I could tell that all the injuries were treated using accidental magic and not by doctors. To treat them, I would need to vanish each and every improperly mended bone and use Skele-Gro potion to grow them back. He also did not have any immunizations both muggle and magical. There were also many scars on his body his face was clean except the iconic Lightning bolt scar. All of them should be healed soon or else they will affect his future growth and also reduce his life expectancy.


    Coming to mental problems. He had a self-induced mental intelligence block due to the abuse. He was so scared of scoring more than Dudley that his magic created the block. It was my first time even hearing about such a block. I don''t think anyone has invented a block like this. He also had many obliviated memories which coincided with instances of accidental magic. So I can tell why he was obliviated. One good thing that came out of the abuse was that by trying to keep his emotions in control, he had become a Natural Occlumens and it would be easy for him to learn Occlumency if thought correctly. I could already see a small shield protecting his mind. This was similar scenario to that of Tom Riddle but he became a Natural Occlumens and Natural Legilimens due to his childhood. I believe he learned to hide his emotions and read the emotions of everyone at a very young age to survive at his orphanage. I believe that is why he became so proficient in mind magic.


    Now coming to his magic core. As I ?ssumed his magical core was much larger than that of normal children.


    About 10% of his magic was constantly fighting the soul leech in his scar. It was a soul leech and not a Horcrux as to make a Horcrux, a ritual was needed and Voldemort did not perform one that night. I believe his soul was so unstable that a part of his soul split out when hit by the reflected killing curse and leeched onto the nearest magical source available. To remove the leech was simple but it was unwise because I believe that Harry gets Fate''s protection due to the same leech. I would remove it only when the final battle was near.


    30% of his core was constantly used to power up the wards. So in total about 40% of his magic was in use all the time. Due to this, his magic was growing at a faster rate than normal. It was not as risk free or beneficial as my method of exercising magic but it made sure that Harry was much stronger than his peers.


    There was also a block on the core that was applied on his core that was increased over the years. At present it was blocking 50% of the core. The block must have been increased over the years by Dumbledore on instances of high amounts of accidental magic.


    So at present he only had 10% of magic for his use thus reducing the amounts of accidental magic. When Harry is away from the wards he will have 40% of his magic as wards cannot draw magic from him when he is far away in Hogwarts. This was the reason why Dumbledore made him stay at Dursley''s over each summer so that he could power up the declining wards again. This 40% of his magic core was similar to the 100% of magic core of rest of his year mates. So Harry will be as strong as his peers and his strength will increase as his magic grows since his magic will grow at a faster rate.


    The blocks must be removed before his magical maturity or else he will lose the portion of magic core blocked during the maturing process of the core. Then he will lose 50% of his magical core potential and he will be only a above average wizard in the future. He will lose the chance to become as strong as Dumbledore or Voldemort.


    Coming to other issues. He had a Mail redirecting ward on him. This made sure that Dumbledore knew who all were mailing letters to Harry and what to do with those letters. He could change the destination of the Owls before the Owl even started its journey.


    There was another block on him that upon further analysis was revealed to be a block on his partial metamorph talent which he must have inherited from his Black ancestry. He did not gain complete inheritance but even the partial gift was good. It would allow him to change his facial features without the use of glamour charms that could be detected by anybody.


    There were also many tracking charms on him. One which tracked his location, another which tracked his life and another that tracked the status of the soul leech.


    Next I started going through his memories. His life was what I expected it to be. A very tough life which was far worse than lives at even the worst orphanages. Till the age of five, I could tell that his life was bearable. The only thing lacking was proper amounts of food and lack of love and care. They left him to himself without any toys and called him either freak or boy. He did not know his name until he went to school. His life became tough only after the age of five. They started giving him chores like cooking, washing clothes, cleaning and gardening to earn his living. If he made any mistakes, he was beaten. He had to learn everything on his own.


    So after knowing that he would not get any help from ?du?ts, he gave up. He stopped rebelling and decided to follow the instructions of his relatives until he escaped from this place. He was excited about the magical world as it gave him hope of escaping his relatives abuse.


    After going through all his memories, I decided to help him but only a little and that too only discreetly. I did not want to change his character too much in this short time and effect his sorting. He was not sneaky like me to stay under radar so I could not train him. I will heal him make sure that all this abuse does not affect his future growth. I would openly help him only during my 7th year as I would be strong enough to protect myself only then.

 Chapter 43 - Treatment

    The only thing I could do for him in a short time were to heal his bones, get him immunized and remove the intelligence block. I can also remove the scars for him. To treat malnutrition, he need to drink a potion every day for half a year and for treating other things it was not time yet. The partial metamorph talent was not that important so I left that alone too.


    I called Sherry and told her to buy all the required potions for immunization and some Skele-Gro potions. While she was doing that I started working on correcting his mind. It required careful control of my magic to remove the intelligence block that he had. I left the obliviated memories alone for now since I needed to explain some things to him before I restored them or else he would just starting cursing Dumbledore when he sees him. He needed some sessions with a mind healer to remove the emotional trauma due to the abuse and that too was left for the future.


    Next were the scars. Healing them and making them vanish was very easy with magic. Only scars made due to dark curses or attacks from magical creatures would leave behind untreatable scars.


    Sherry came back with the potions and I got him immunized for all diseases. After that I started working on his bones. I had to be careful now since I had to correct the bones in a correct order otherwise things could get worse. I started working on the small bones first as it would regrow faster. After healing all the small bones, I looked at the time and found out that it was 9 am and the Dursleys might come to wake him up for the chores. I needed him to be asleep for the whole day so that I could heal his completely so I had to make sure that the Dursleys did not disturb me.


    I made my way outside and found the ?du?ts in the living room reading the morning newspaper. I read their mind to confirm some things. After reading their mind I found out that they got a monthly stipend in their account for taking care of Harry which they used on their holiday trips and Dudley''s gifts. Other than that there was no contact with Dumbledore so I could easily make some changes without Dumbledore noticing. I confounded them to forget about Harry for the day, made my way towards Dudley''s room and did the same to him.


    Next I worked on the bigger bones. The process was long and by the time my work was done, it was late in the evening. Harry would still require till the next morning to regrow the remaining damaged bones that I had vanished. I wrote him a small note and then after making sure that Harry would sleep till next morning with no disturbance, I went back towards my house to sleep. I was tired from all that healing. I did not correct the wards for now as I still needed them to not detect magic done in the house. Next morning I told Sherry to pop to Harry''s house and leave him the things that I had mentioned in the note.


    I woke up feeling very excited. The trip to the magical world with Hagrid yesterday was wonderful. I would be able to leave this house now and learn magic just like my parents.


    I got up from the bed and stood up. Something felt different. I feel much stronger than i have ever felt in my life and the pain I had in my hand yesterday had vanished. I checked every part of my body and was shocked. All the ugly scars I had had vanished. I did not need to care about them showing when I go outside anymore. But how did all this happen. It was like magic.


    The thought brought a smile on my face. I looked around to find anything that would explain my changes and saw a note on the table near the window. The table also also had a book and a small vial filled with some liquid next to it. I took the note first and started reading.


    "Dear Harry Potter,


    I hope you like the magic I have done on your body. I came to your house yesterday to see how your home life was and did not like the way your relatives had treated you. Taking you away was not possible due to various reasons so I decided to treat your body and make sure that your home life did not affect your future growth. I fixed all the broken bones and removed those ugly scars. Treating your malnutrition would require a lot of time though. So i will leave the vial like the one you see on the table everyday near you. Make sure you drink them without fail. They are nutrition potions and would taste bad but they would make sure that you grow as tall as children your age. You don''t want them to call you short do you.


    I would like to help you more but there is something you must do first. I am leaving behind a book on how to protect your mind from mind readers. If you are thinking I used it on you then you are right. I know about your whole life after reading your mind and I am amazed at the way you faced your difficulties. I know I would not have survived with the Dursleys. Either I would had died at their hands or I would have killed them. The treatment would be the only help you will be getting from me for now as I would have to be careful so as to not being found. Many people have unhealthy interest in your life and would not like others coming in their way. Be careful at Hogwarts. When you are able to protect your mind from mind reader, I will explain everything to you and take you away from here. Don''t get too excited because it would take at least 3 years for you to reach that level.


    Until then you are on own. Make sure you take your potion everyday without fail and read the book before the end of this month. I only loaned it to you for this month and it will disappear in the end.


    Another important thing don''t mention anything about me to anyone, even your close friends. You will lose my help if you do so and you will understand how much you need my help at Hogwarts. Make up some excuse when they ask about you sudden growth like availability of good food at Hogwarts.


    Your Well Wisher."


    The paper disintegrated after I read it. That was so cool. But lets think about what he said.


    This guy makes it seem like Hogwarts is going to be dangerous. I don''t care as nothing can be worse than living here and going to Stonewall High while wearing that hideous uniform. Anyways since he treated me of my physical defects which when you think about it even Hagrid did not care about, I will listen to him and read that book. Being able to protect my mind is always advantageous. Also I will drink those potions for now. If the effects are something other than treating the malnutrition, I will go to the professors. I will also listen to him keep this a secret. Its not like I trust any other ?du?t enough to ask help.


    My body feels so great. Just for this I would listen to everything he said.

 Chapter 44 - Opening Feast

    Today was September 1 1991. I had visited Harry to check up on him and to replace the wards in their correct position yesterday. He looked much better physically as now he had a similar build to that of a 11-year-old. It looked like he had taken my advice and threatened his family as he was freely spending his time studying while his aunt was doing the house work which was previously done by him. I waited till they all fell asleep before going to Harry room. I checked his shields and found that his speed of progress was good. He will now be able to protect his mind from passive surface legilimency scans by anyone. Just for an added security, I entered his mind and buried his recent memories deep in his mind. If anyone wanted to find them they would have to spend a lot of time. Brief legilimency even with a wand will not show these memories. After making sure that I did not leave any traces, I exited his room and went home.


    Nothing special happened on the train. What I meant by that was no visits by either Granger or Malfoy to annoy me and my friends. After reaching Hogsmeade, we made our way towards the Great Hall.


    Soon after we got settled in the great hall, Professor McGonagall brought the first-year students inside. After another painfully long song by sorting hat, the sorting commenced. Everyone got sorted to same houses as in the books. So, nothing new there. This year''s sorting was the first time I saw many people who were sorted to houses where they did not belong. I guess since most of the children were heirs of their respective families the sorting hat sorted them considering their family situations too. I ignored most of the sorting and just glanced at the faces of the people to compare them with what I read in books.


    Daphne Greengrass had the same expression less face as her sister Irene. Theodore Nott I felt was a much better person than his brother and was not a bully. Being bullied by his elder brother may have led to this. Draco Malfoy was a spoilt child who had some Slytherin traits forced into him by his father otherwise he would have been a sure shot for Gryffindor.


    Then I glanced at the staff table. Prof. Quirrell, unlike the previous year when he taught Muggle Studies, was wearing a dirty looking turban. Through my mage sight I could see the completely dark black core on the back of Quirrell''s head. This was the first time I saw someone with fully dark core. No wonder Voldemort was a crazy maniac. I started thinking about new pranks just to make his stay difficult.


    Ronald Weasley was as described in the books. Harry was sitting near him which disappointed me. It seemed like even with the extra intelligence he was still an emotionally deprived kid who jumped at the chance of making his first friend. A friend who could explain to him all the wonders of this new magical world. I was glad of my decision to not show myself to Harry.


    After reading Ron''s mind, I found that he was manipulated into becoming Harry''s friend. It was a good choice too since no one in the right mind would explain their evil schemes to a 11-year-old who could reveal the plot by mistake. His mother had by constant scolding, told him to become friends with Harry. He was also told that he should make other kids stay away from Harry as if he had other friends then Harry would leave him to be with them. She had also said that he must not tell Harry about his status because if Harry knew he had money, he would leave Ron to be with similarly rich friends.


    After hearing all these thing Ron had agreed to keep others away from Harry and also keep him ignorant. He wanted to be famous and being the best friend of the Boy-who-lived would make others jealous of him. He was an ignorant jealous young boy who wanted to be praised more than his other more accomplished siblings. He was following the plans laid out by his mother and he knew nothing about all other manipulations.


    As the feast was about to end, it was time for the new Marauders to appear.


    This time instead of appearing with a bang sound, the four marauders appeared after a beautiful display of fireworks. Everyone was eagerly waiting to see what would happen next.


    Leo "Hello everyone. Did you miss me?"


    Stripe "Hello first years. How did you like the feast? Your seniors will explain who we are afterwards but for now, enjoy the show."


    Raven "We hope everything remains as they were last year. I have developed a lot of new spells that need to be tested. So if you create problems, I would be very happy to test them on you."


    Slyde "It seem we have a lot of children from powerful families this year including the Boy Wonder who looks like he is nothing special. I had high hope for you but you got sorted to the house of idiots which means you are going to be a no brains guy like them."


    Suddenly there was a Hout from the Gryffindor side. "Yes. Teach those slimy snakes a lesson."


    Everybody was dumbfounded after hearing and looked at the source who happened to be Ronald Weasley. He had now made a lot of enemies as many Slytherins were glaring at him.


    Slyde "A Weasley with no brains. That''s a first. How many times was he dropped on his head twins? Or after 5 children there were no brain cells left for him to inherit."


    The twins were embarrassed.


    Fred "Hmm. We did drop him¡­."


    George "¡­ head a few times. But he¡­"


    Fred "has been like that from the start."


    George "So we are not at fault here."


    Leo "Hey don''t embarrass him. I like how his brain works. He does not care about anything and speaks his mind. Say firsty, do you want me to prank anyone for you?"


    Leo "Consider it done."


    Draco Malfoy stood up angrily and shouted "How dare you even think about pranking me. Wait till my father hears about this?"


    Slyde "Since you are supporting that idiot in your house then I feel like I should help this Daddy''s boy. If you prank my brat, I will prank yours."


    Leo "You are on Slyde. Hey girly boy, name something you hate."


    Draco smirked and replied "Mudbloods."


    They were several gasps around the hall after hearing him say that.


    Leo "Wow I thought the professors would scold you at least but it seems they are scared of you Daddy. Don''t worry. I will punish you instead with the thing you hate."


    There was a snap and a bucket appeared above Draco''s head. Another snap and it was overturned. Draco was now covered in blood red sludge.


    Leo "It''s a mixture of cow blood and mud. I hope you like it. From today onwards every time you say that word you will be drenched in this mixture."


    Ron "Take that Malfoy"


    Slyde "He deserved it but I should keep my promise and retaliate. So here goes."


    There was a snap and Ron was covered in green slime while his hair turned into rubber snakes.


    Slyde "I hope you enjoy your slimy snakes."


    There was laughter again in the hall.


    Stripe "Boys enough. It is late and everyone is tired. We must leave."


    Raven "Goodbye everyone and remember my warning."


    The marauders disappeared again with the cover of fireworks. Everyone was laughing at the two clowns while both Draco and Ron stayed in their seats embarrassed and angry. They could not leave the hall as it was not allowed.


    I smiled as another one of my skits ended. I felt like a movie director whenever I did this and it brought me a lot of joy. I need to direct more of these plays.

 Chapter 45 - Plans for the Year and Voldemort

    My plans for this year were to continue the mastery studies that I had started last year. Once that was over I could move on to Healing, DADA and Duelling mastery studies.


    One of the things I lacked was the experience battling in dangerous situations. This year provided a good opportunity to correct that.


    With Voldemort hunting for Unicorn Blood in the forbidden forest, I could use this opportunity to hunt and clean up the Acromantula nest in the forest. Voldemort will be blamed for the hunt by Dumbledore and he would not search for the hunter. Acromantula were XXXXX rated beasts and very dangerous in large numbers. The large Acromantula nest so close to the school was a disaster waiting to happen and needed to be eradicated. The hunt would provide me with the experience battling in dangerous situations while also providing me with hundreds of thousands of Galleons worth of Acromantula parts. Acromantula parts, venom and silk were highly priced items. Sherry could easily sell the parts and web while I killed the spiders.


    The next thing on my list was to prank the hell out of Quirrell to annoy Voldemort. I am going to make Voldemort regret coming to Hogwarts. The best idea was pouring a bottle full of pungent perfume on his turban every week. I think Voldemort will enjoy the smell. The DADA classroom was filled with heavy garlic odour and the perfume countered it making it somewhat bearable to sit inside the class. Marauders will not be involved for the pranks so others would think this was the work of some new pranksters since the marauders have always pranked in the open.


    I also had to acquire the philosopher stone from the Mirror of Erised and keep it away from Dumbledore. I did not think he was mad enough to destroy something so valuable and it was possible he would keep it for himself. I was not planning on intervening in any of the events involving the Golden Boy and was going to let it play out like the books. It was my test for Harry to see if he was able to notice the manipulations in his life.


    That is all what I had planned for the year.


    So the days passed like any ordinary year. With Voldemort and Dumbledore roaming inside the castle I had to find another method to hide myself. They could easily see through disillusionment charm. I found a old worn out invisibility cloak in the Room of Hidden Things and started repairing it. The cloth material was still in good condition but the runes were damaged. It is good thing that I was near Master level in the subject. I redid the old runes and added some more runes to improve the functionality of the cloak. I added runes for anti-summoning and runes that made the cloak hide from Homenum Revelio charm. I also added runes that hid the magic under the cloak to hide myself from magic seeing eyes and glasses. After I was finished the cloak was perfect for me to sneak around the castle.


    One day during my DADA class I took a great risk and tried Legilimency on Voldemort when Quirrell had his back towards me. I was overjoyed when I saw that in the spirit form his shields were very weak and I could easily bypass them. The memories were still neatly arranged in a mindscape and I could look through them easily. From then on my time was spent going through the vast amount of knowledge that Voldemort had acquired during the course of his life. By watching his memories in the same manner as I watched the educational Youtube videos in my past life, I was learning at a much faster rate. So now my DADA classes were the most fruitful time of my year.


    Most important things to go through were his knowledge on Legilimency and Flying without a broom. I did not need the flying skill due to my animagus but I decided to learn the method since I wanted to know how he did that. I also went through and copied his wide knowledge of Dark arts and Rituals for future use. The process was lengthy and time consuming as I had to watch his memory of his practice and from that I had to understand the topic. Therefore I had to carefully pick the topics that were useful for me.


    I also went through the memories of his life to know more about him. He lived in a poorly maintained orphanage and his early years were tough. The bullies liked to make his life difficult as he was an easy target due to his lack of friends or support from caretakers. The bullying went on till he found magic. It was accidental at first but after a few events he started using his magic to harm the bullies who made his life difficult. This made the children fear him and hate him more and led to more attacks on him. So he had to watch his back every time he was in the orphanage in fear of attacks.


    When Dumbledore came and told him about Hogwarts he was overjoyed and thought that he would be able to escape the orphanage and his life would get better. But he was disappointed when after getting sorted into Slytherin he faced more bullying due to them not liking muggleborns. The bullying at school made him look into magic that could help him retaliate and protect himself. He quickly learnt spells and retaliated against his bullies. What he did not know was that Dumbledore was watching him every day ever since he had learned about his deeds at the orphanage and after he saw him retaliate against the bullies, Dumbledore called him in and reprimanded him.


    This event made him paranoid. He found that Dumbledore was against him and Dumbledore along with the pureblood children together were a tough foe for him to face. This led him to research into ways to make him become stronger quickly leading him to the field of Dark magic. From then on as the years passed and his paranoia increased he started delving deeper into dark magic. He did not know the side effects of dark magic due to the absence of books on the topic at Hogwarts. Those books were hoarded by the purebloods and a muggle raised orphan like him could never get his hands on them. So he delved into dark magic and dark rituals without proper precautions. The side effects of dark magic made him crazy and more paranoid which caused him to fear of his life. He thought that Dumbledore was after his life and to avoid he delved into research to safeguard his life and avoid death. This led to him to Horcruxes.


    The dark path could have been avoided if someone had taken him out of the difficult environment. But no one cared for him and did not hear his complaints about his difficult life at the orphanage. After making the first Horcrux in his fifth year, he became more evil and there was no going back after that. His life was now on a dark path forever. I did not feel too sorry for him. It were his decisions that made his life hard. He could have had a good life if he had faced the difficulties using different cunning decisions but he gave all that up due to his paranoia. Maybe it was the lack of good environment or the Gaunt family blood inside him that led him down this path but since he had become evil, he had to be killed.


    I also searched for the positions and protections of his Horcruxes to make sure it was same as in the canon. The positions and protections were same but the protections in the cave and the shack were a little difficult. Since I knew the protections I could find ways to bypass them in a few months otherwise it would have taken years. I could bulldoze through them but that would alert Dumbledore and Voldemort about my actions. He did not know about the soul piece inside Harry''s scar. I stored the information away for future use.


    He lacked good knowledge in fields other than Dark Arts. He was just above NEWT level in other fields. He had spent most of his life learning obscure dark magic from various countries and nothing else. So the knowledge I could gain from Voldemort was limited.


    The days passed quietly without any incidents and soon it was the night of Halloween.

 Chapter 46 - Troll Incident and Aftermath

    The troll incident happened as it did in the canon. After Quirrell came running into the great hall screaming about the Troll, we were asked by Dumbledore to go to our respective common rooms. A foolish decision since the Troll was sighted in the dungeons and Slytherin and Hufflepuff common rooms were near the dungeons. Most probably Dumbledore knew the location of the troll due to the Hogwarts wards and since it was not near any common room he decided it was safe for us to leave the great hall. He then allowed the troll to move around the castle freely by not going to its location directly and take care of it to know about the plan of Voldemort.


    I used my invisibility cloak to slip out of the crowd unnoticed so that I could watch the fight. I was not going to do anything else. I did not care if anything happened to anyone due to the troll.


    When I reached the girls bathroom the fight had already started. The troll was huge. The unpleasant odor forced me to use the bubble-head charm so that I could breathe properly. After performing the charm I turned my attention towards the fight. The troll was just blindly swinging it''s club around and hoping it would hit the kids. Harry and Ron handled the troll as it was written in the books. I was amazed at the numerous times they escaped certain death during the fight. Somehow their foolish plan worked and they were successful in knocking out the troll. I started envying Harry''s plot armor. It was a wonderful thing to own. I did not wait for the professors and went to my room. Since I was gone for only a short period of time, my absence did not cause any problems or suspicion.


    When I saw that there was no clarification about the incident the next day I decided to do something about it.


    The next day during lunch Leo and Slyde appeared again.


    Leo "Professor Dumbledore, can you explain to me how a troll was able to enter the castle last night? From what I know, there are no troll tribes near Hogwarts or in the Forbidden forest. So how do you explain a dumb creature like troll coming inside the castle undetected in spite of Hogwarts having wards that would detect them."


    Dumbledore "We are investigating last night''s incident. We don''t know how the troll was transported here. We will have a satisfactory response for everyone here after the investigation is concluded."


    Slyde "I hope you can give us a satisfactory explanation for the incident and the aurors are involved in it. Trolls are magically resistant and if the troll had attacked a group of students, it would have led to many casualties as even ?du?ts find it difficult to take it down."


    Dumbledore "I am also glad that the troll was taken care of swiftly without causing harm to any student."


    Leo "Yes coming to that. Why did you not praise the efforts of Harry Potter in swiftly taking down the troll and saving his class mate Hermione Granger from death in front of the school? I thought you would have given him an award for knocking it down. That was brilliant and funny strategy which I think should be shared so that others can use it too to take a troll down easily. Climbing up on the troll and then plunging your wand into its nose which made it disoriented. Then a simple use of levitation charm on its club to control it and using the club to knock it down. Ingenious."


    Many students started looking at Harry with awe and started thanking him. I avoided mentioning Ron because I wanted him to get jealous. It would lead him to become angry at Harry and ruining their friendship.


    Slyde "You proved you were a true Gryffindor by the foolish and brave effort which surprisingly worked."


    Dumbledore was not happy but still smiled and said " I was going to praise him after Ms. Granger came out of the infirmory. He did a great thing for the school and his efforts avoided any causalities but I am sorry to say we cannot give away any award for it. The feat did not meet the criteria for the school award. Professor McGonagall did give Gryffindor points but I think they deserve more. Take 100 points for Gryffindor."


    Leo "Yes. Gryffindor are now leading in points. Now Ronald Weasley, I am withdrawing my support from you. Everyone is free to prank him without any retaliation from me. It was due to your harsh words that the girl was crying in the bathroom where she nearly met her death. She would have died had Harry not found her and fought the troll."


    Ron shouted angrily "I helped fight the troll too. I should be praised for it and not scolded."


    Slyde "And it was because of you that she was in danger in the first place. It seems we need to teach you a lesson and also some table manners. If I didn''t know from the other Wealseys that your mother cooks good food and feeds you well, I would have thought that you were starved at home after seeing you eat. I am putting a curse on you that would make every food item you touch escape your reach unless you use proper table manners. So no more use of two hands while eating and no talking while eating."


    After saying that they disappeared. Ron was very angry after testing the curse and finding it impossible to eat in his usual method. He was also mad that he got only the blame and no praise for the troll incident.


    Ron was given glares by almost everyone in the coming days and was slowly becoming a pariah due to his manners and actions. He was frequently pranked and I think the main perpetrators were the twins. I don''t know why but Harry was still sticking with him and his friendship with Ron helped Ron avoid a lot of the hate. I don''t know what''s the matter with him. He should not like bullies due to his childhood but still sticks with Ron who is very similar to Dudley. It made me rethink my decision to help him. It may be because of his young age so I am going to give him time till 4th year and if he does not change, I am going to leave him and not care what happens to him.


    When Hermione came out of the infirmary after a few days she had gained a few friends out of sympathy. The Golden trio was formed and the three of them were seen together all the time. Her bossy know-it-all attitude did not change. Maybe I should leave some books that talked about the future of muggleborns to destroy her spirits. I will leave that for her 4th year too and let her strive for her impossible dreams for a few years.


    After the troll incident, I started using all my free time at night for hunting. I would fly high above the forest and looked for small groups of Acromantula using my mage sight. I was not foolish enough to directly attack their nest. Acromantula were dangerous only when fought at close range due to their large number of legs. They use their webs and their huge numbers to close the distance between their opponent and then use their legs to pierce the prey, killing the prey. I killed the small groups of Acromantula easily using long range cutting curses. Sherry would clean up after me. Since I had to wait for small groups of Acromantula, the number of Acromantula I killed were not large. To attack the main nest, I think I would need more power which I would gain only on my majority. So I was not in a hurry to eradicate the Acromantula.

 Chapter 47 - Meeting with Lord Black

    A few weeks before the start of Christmas holidays, a barn Owl dropped a regal looking letter in front of me during breakfast. I was confused since I was not expecting any official letter. After confirming that the letter was addressed to me, I put it in my pocket for later private reading.


    Later that day I opened the letter in my room and started reading,


    Dear Mr. Falken,


    I am Arcturus Black, Lord of Most Ancient and Noble House of Black. I would like extend an invitation for you to visit the Black Castle to discuss something very important. The topic cannot be discussed through letters due to security reasons.


    If it is convenient, I would like to meet you as soon as possible. I have no ill will towards you and the discussion would benefit you a lot.


    The letter would act like a portkey to Black Castle. The activation key is "Black Castle".


    I would be glad if you decide to meet me before the end of this year.


    Arcturus Black


    Lord of Most Ancient and Noble House of Black


    The letter was intriguing. I can''t think of any reason for Lord Black to contact me but since he said it would benefit me, I have a guess and if my guess is right, I must visit him. From what I know from my previous life he died in the year 1991 that means this year. So he has only a few more days left to live. I decided to meet him during this Hogsmeade weekend because I did not know how much time Lord Black has left to live. I did not think the visit would endanger me since I now had enough strength and knowledge to escape from any trap.


    On the Hogsmeade weekend, I went to a secluded area near the forbidden forest and activated the portkey. I had a tracking charm on me which would allow Sherry to know my position even from heavily warded Black Castle. It made it possible for Sherry to come to my aid if necessary.


    It was my first portkey travel and I did not like it one bit. It was more uncomfortable than apparating. Thankfully I kept my balance due to my reflexes and did not collapse on the floor.


    The portkey dropped me in front of a huge door which belonged to a huge magnificent castle. I looked around and found out that the castle was situated in the middle of a dense forest. There was no sight of any human or animal around the castle. Just as I was about to knock on the door, I heard a pop and a house elf appeared before me.


    House elf "I am Elgar, the Head Black Family elf. May I know the purpose of your visit."


    The house elf was far different from other house elves. His attire was formal and the way he stood and spoke was similar to butlers of old and rich families. It gave Arcturus Black a good impression in my mind. He was not like typical pureblood bigoted Lords.


    I replied "I am Charles Falken, Heir of Most Ancient and Noble House of Falken. I received a letter from Lord Black a few days back requesting me to meet him. Can you inform Lord Black that I am here?"


    Elgar "Master Black is waiting for you. Please follow me. I will lead you to him."


    I followed Elgar through the castle to Lord Black''s meeting room while enjoying the beautiful indoors of the castle. It was beautiful and I was hoping the Falken Manor was just as glamorous and magnificent. The meeting room was on the ground floor which made me disappointed as I wanted to see more of the castle. The castle was in good condition despite only Lord Black living here.


    When we entered the study, I was welcomed by Lord Black who looked very pale but still had the aura of a wise and strong wizard.


    Lord Black "Welcome Heir Falken to the Black castle. I was not expecting to meet you so soon. I thought you will come to me during your holidays but I am glad that you came this quickly."


    I said "I saw the urgency conveyed in the letter and also knew that you were ill. So I came as soon as possible, Lord Black. It is the Hogsmeade weekend at Hogwarts and no one would notice my absence. The only thing I have to do is to go back before curfew to avoid trouble. And please call me Charles."


    Arcturus Black "You were right in coming quickly, Charles as I feel that I do not have much time left to live."


    I asked "I am sorry to hear that. Is it possible for me to know what is wrong with your health?"


    Arcturus Black "My healer diagnosed that I had caught a rare disease and there was no cure currently available for it. He told me that I only have a few more weeks left to live. Don''t feel sad for me as I am happy I was able to live till this old age."


    I nodded solemnly and asked "Why did you want to meet me urgently? I can''t think of any reason for this meeting as I don''t think I have any connection with the Black family."


    Black "It seems you are not well informed about your family. I understand the reason for it. To know more about your family you would need access to the Falken Manor. Anyways you do have a connection to the Black family through your great-great-great grandmother Elladora Cassiopeia Falken nee Black. She was the daughter of Cygnus Black (I) and the sister of Phineas Nigellus Black, the Hogwarts Headmaster. I am sure that you can confirm it through the Falken Family tree later."


    The news was not unexpected. Since the Falken family was trying to avoid inbreeding to remove the defects in their genes, they must have married members of many other pureblood families. So it is quite possible that I am related to many old pureblood families in Britain although distantly. I also may have connection with other old families through my mother''s side since her grandparents from both sides were muggle borns. Due to them being muggleborns and since coming into magic through ley lines was rare, I think one or all of them might have had squibs among their parents.


    The only problem was due to the distant relation, there was no way to check. Even the Gringotts heritage test traced family lines only five generations back and to check further than that was not possible. There was no advantage in having the knowledge too since the knowledge was important only for the hereditary seats in Wizengamot and nothing else. There were no inheritance left to gain, from the knowledge. Also the family traits would have vanished long back and their magic core would be similar to that of muggleborns.

 Chapter 48 - The Black Family

    I said "So I am related to the Blacks even though very distantly. That''s good to know I guess but then why contact me urgently now? Shouldn''t you have asked for a meeting the moment I joined the Magical world?"


    Black "I came to know about your relation to me just recently when I started looking through the Family tree to find remaining members of the Black family. As you may know the Black family is down to very last of its members and is in danger of extinction. The wizarding wars were not good for the family and many died fighting in the war. I do not want the family to become extinct under my care as I won''t be able to answer to my ancestors in the afterlife if that happened. So for the past few years since the war I was looking for the remaining members of the Black family."


    I asked "Black family is very old so I am sure you would have found many people in other families who had ancestors belonging to the Black family."


    Black "Black family is old but again the last two wars have not been good for it. Many black family members and their descendants in other families died during the two wars. So my search was very disappointing. I found very few members alive. You, Harry Potter, Cygnus Black, his children Narcissa and Bellatrix, his grandson Draco Malfoy and Cassiopeia Black who moved to France after the last war."


    I said "Eight people. That is still better than the condition of the Falken family. What about the disowned members of the family? You can reinstate them into the family to increase the numbers."


    Black "If it was possible then the number would have doubled just by bringing Cedrella Weasley back into the family. But the Black family charter does not allow the disowned members to be brought back. Disownment is permanent in Black family. I would have liked to bring Andromeda back into the family. Her daughter, Nymphadora who has the Black family gift would have been a great addition to the declining Black family. Andromeda was a good child but belonging to Cygnus''s family meant that there were some lines that she should not have crossed."


    I asked "Was Sirius Black disowned as well? You did not mention him throughout our conversation. I thought you would have kept him in the family so that when either side won in the war, the Black family would have had an Heir in the winning side who would have ensured that the Black family lived on."


    Black "Yes he was disowned and he was disowned even after considering that scenario due to his beliefs that were not suited for a member of the Black family. Why are you bringing up the case of Sirius Black anyway? He has a life sentence in Azkaban and there is no way he will ever get out."


    I said "Just that he is there without a trial and I think that he is innocent. I looked into his case to understand why Sirius Black who considered James Potter as a brother, betrayed the Potter''s location. My research found many problems with his case. Many basic procedures that would have found him not guilty were not followed in his case even though many of his friends should have had doubts about his guilt."


    Black "I always thought there was something wrong with his case too but when his own allies told me that he was guilty, I did not look into his case in detail. If you think, he is innocent then do you think there was foul play involved in his case? And why?"


    I replied "Yes there was foul play involved and the reason he was sent to prison is very simple. He is the godfather of Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived."


    Black "So Dumbledore wanted to control the Boy Who Lived and Sirius had to be sent away to make that possible. All for the greater good I am sure. I am one of the few people who knows about the real Dumbledore and it seems you know the true face of Dumbledore too. Very good. Many people worship him as the next Merlin even though he has not done much for the Wizarding world. In case of Sirius, there is not much I can do to get him out even if I wanted to. He has to live with the repercussions of his decisions."


    I asked "What did Sirius Black do to make you angry?"


    Black "It''s a long story and the gist of it is that after he joined Hogwarts he became a Dumbledore follower and gave up on the family. He was always a little rebellious but after a year at Hogwarts, he started criticizing our traditions and started hating the Dark side. It annoyed his mother a lot and she tried many ways to make him see reason. Instead of trying to understand our views and correct his, he decided to run away from home and went to the Potters, who took him in. The Potters too did not like the views of their son and Sirius too but James was their only son who was born very late in their life. They decided to spoil him due to it and did not have the heart to scold him about his beliefs. They also did not have enough time to correct his views since they died just after his Hogwarts graduation. When we saw that there was no way we could change Sirius''s views, he was disowned so that Regulus could be groomed as the Heir. It was the only way Regulus could be made the Heir. I hope atleast now he is regretting his decisions in Azkaban. If he was still a member of the Black family, he would not have spent even a single day in Azkaban."


    I agreed with his decision concerning Sirius. It was his decisions that made his life at home difficult. Even if he did not like his family''s views he should not have tried to anger them by openly cursing their views. Sirius was too immature and Dumbledore took advantage of that to make him a follower. Similarly, a spoiled Heir like James was an easy target for Dumbledore. By forgiving them for their pranks at school with his grandfatherly smile and letting them have free reign at Hogwarts to continue pranking, he gained the trust of the immature boys. The trust led them to their current fate.


    I asked "I hope he learns his lesson during his time in the prison. Did you look into the descendants of the squibs born into the family as well or were the squibs disowned as well?"


    Black "None of the pureblood family go into the trouble to disown the squibs as it is little troublesome to disown squibs. They just remove the children''s memories and leave them at muggle orphanages. I did look into the squibs and their descendants. We have had only a few squibs born into the family and the descendants of the recent ones have not gained magic. Unfortunately, I was not able to look into descendants of squibs born a few centuries back since they did not live in Britain anymore. Almost all of them had moved to USA."

 Chapter 49 - Black Heir

    I said "Even after all that effort you only found 8 people left in the family. That must have been very disappointing. Now can you get to the part where you explain your reason for calling me here? I don''t have much time since I must be inside my room in the Hogwarts Castle before curfew. Are you planning a family reunion?"


    Black "A family Reunion for us will be disastrous and may reduce the numbers even more. So no family reunion. I called you here to discuss about the Black Heirship."


    I asked "How does that concern me? The ones with strong claim are Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy. My claim to the Black Lordship is very weak and the only when they both are dead can I claim the Lordship."


    Black "That would have been true if not for the current scenario. The previous Heir, Regulus Black died without any child to pass on the Heir ship to. The next in line should have been someone from the main family but the only one remaining in that family is me. Both Potter and Malfoy belong to the Branch family. According to the Black charter, when there is no suitable Heir in the main family, the Head of the family has the power to choose an appropriate Heir and the only requirement is that the person must belong to the Black family and the family magic of the Heir ring should accept that person. So I can make you the Heir if I want to. If I had died without choosing an Heir, the Heir-ship would have fallen to either Potter or Malfoy with Potter having the better claim. If Potter does not claim the Heirship in time, it will fall into Malfoy''s hands."


    This was an interesting turn of events. I was shocked but the opportunity was good for me. If I become the Lord Black, then I will be very strong politically and I will not have to depend on Harry for anything in the future. That was good because after seeing no positive change in his behaviour even after all the help that I gave him, I did not like the idea of depending on him. The Lordship will also make it very easy for me to collect all of Voldemort''s Horcruxes.


    I asked "Why do you want to make me the Black Heir anyway? Both Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy are strong and are well known in the magical society. They would make good Heirs"


    Black "I have spent a lot of time looking into those two and from what I found, I am sure that Black family will be ruined under their control.


    Consider Harry Potter first. He was hidden from the magical world after his parent''s deaths and comes to Hogwarts with no knowledge about the magical world. He is clueless about everything. It will be very easy to coach him about these subjects even now but from what I have seen of his life till now, I can tell that Dumbledore is trying to manipulate his life and has big plans for him. There is no way for me to get him out of Dumbledore''s control. Under Dumbledore, I am sure that Potter will start thinking like Sirius in a few years.


    Let''s turn to Draco Malfoy next. I thought he would be like his father, cunning, resourceful and powerful but what I found was a whiny, bigoted and spoiled child who did not have even an ounce of cunning inside him. He is dependent on his father for everything since he is using his father''s name even for raising his status in the Slytherin house. He may improve in the future but I cannot risk the future of the family on the slight hope that he grows up.


    There is also another reason I cannot choose them."


    I don''t know how he got all this accurate information in such a short time. His information network was very good. My guess is that he uses elves to gather information. The way he treats Elgar tells me that he knows the advantages the elves can provide.


    I said "I don''t know how you got all this accurate information in such a short time but I am impressed. What is the other reason?"


    Black "I know that the Dark Lord is not dead just weakened and he will be resurrected in the future. I don''t know how he is alive but many of my sources have confirmed this to be true. So giving the Lordship to either of them would lead to the destruction of the Black family. They would drain the Black family fortunes to aid their side in the war and I do not want that to happen. I want the fortunes to be used for the betterment of the family and not for war. So you are the only option left for me even though I don''t know much about you other than the fact that you grew up in muggle world but adapted to the magical world quickly.


    If you did not exist like everyone believed till you showed up at Hogwarts, I would not have tried anything and would have left the future of Black family to whoever survives the war between those two boys."


    I said "Without knowing anything about my beleifs, you are ready to pass the Lordship to me? What if I am like Sirius? Are you sure you want to make me the Black heir? My relation is also very distant so I lack the Black family traits. There is very little chance that my descendants will become metamorphagous."


    If I married Nymphadora Tonks, then my descendants would gain the Black family traits as well but there was no way I was going to tell him that. He would rush to draw a marriage contract between us if he heard about this.


    Black "I know that your descendants won''t have the black family traits but at least the Black family name will live on and through the family Grimoire, the family magic will live on. That is enough for me at this stage. Your behaviour at Hogwarts tells me that you belong to neither Dark or the Light side which is good considering the fact that another war is coming. You are on the weaker side magically but your high intelligence makes up for it. In any case you are the better option among my choices. So are willing?"


    I sighed "I am willing. What should I do to accept the Heirship? Do we have to go to Gringotts to acquire the Heir ring? Can we avoid that? I cannot be seen outside Hogwarts. It would lead to a lot of trouble."


    Lord Black smiled and replied, "You don''t need to go to Gringotts. I already acquired Heir ring from Gringotts on the day I wrote you that letter. I wanted this to be secretive so as to give you some time to prepare. Many people will come after you when they get to know about you inheriting the Black Heirship. Let''s begin."


    He took out his wand and said "I, Arcturus Aries Black, Lord of Most Ancient and Noble House of Black, pass the Heirship of the House to Charles Daniel Falken-Black, Heir of Most Ancient and Noble House of Falken."


    I took out my wand and continued "I, Charles Daniel Falken-Black, Heir of Most Ancient and Noble House of Falken, accept the Heirship of Most Ancient and Noble House of Black. So mote be it."


    Black "So mote be it."


    A blinding white light appeared and vanished in a few seconds.


    Black "Now for the important part. Wear this ring. I hope the family magic accepts you as the new Black Heir."


    He opened a small bejewelled ring box passed the ring inside it to me. The ring had the miniature version of the Black family crest inscribed on it along with the family motto ''Toujours Pur'' meaning ''Always Pure''.


    I put the ring on and it flashed with light for some time until the light dimmed and vanished.


    Black happily said "Congratulations Charles. You are the now the new Heir Black. I hope you can meet my expectations."

 Chapter 50 - Lord Blacks Illness

    I replied "Thank you, Lord Black. Calling you Lord Black doesn''t seem right anymore. Any suggestions on what I should call you?"


    Black "You can call me Grandfather, Charles. Due to our age difference that is more suitable."


    I said "Okay Grandfather. So are you my magical guardian now?"


    Black "I should be. Why?"


    I replied "Since you trusted me with the future of the Black family, I should trust you too. You see I am not magically weak like others consider me to be. It is a disguise I created to make sure that people don''t feel threatened and take drastic actions against me. I didn''t have a backing in the magical world who can help me fight against them so I had to resort to this. In reality my magical strength is on par with my magical knowledge. I could go write my OWLs today and get Outstanding in all my subjects."


    Everything I told him was the truth even though I hid my true level. But this was enough to satisfy him since his expectations were very low. Even though he was dying, there was no way I was going to tell him my true strength. It was always good to hide some of your true strength even from your close allies as you may never know what will happen in the future.


    Black laughed loudly and said "It seems that the risk I took paid off. If what you are telling is true, then I am ?ssured about the future of the Black family. Your decision to hide your strength was the right one. If people know about this, then both Light and Dark side would have tried everything to either bring you to their side or kill you to get rid of any future threat. What else are you hiding from me?"


    I replied "I know a little pit of healing too. Your condition is suspicious, Grandfather. Can I cast charms and check what illness you have?"


    I asked "Did you go to St. Mungo''s and get yourself checked?"


    Black "No I did not. I was diagnosed with the disease by a healer who is a close friend and classmate from Hogwarts. What''s wrong?"


    I replied "You don''t have an illness grandfather. You have been poisoned. The poison was given in very low doses over the course of some years and has spread to all parts of your body. It seems your healer is responsible for this as the poison is very easy to detect and he has allowed your condition to deteriorate to the extreme level."


    He was furious after hearing my diagnosis. He asked "Are you sure? He has been my personal healer and close friend for many years. So I trusted his diagnosis. He said that going outside in my condition would deteriorate my illness further. So I did not go out to get a second opinion. It should have caused suspicion now that I think about it. What is the condition of my body?"


    I replied "The poison has spread everywhere so I don''t have the skills to remove the poison from your body. I would recommend going to St. Mungo''s and see if they can treat you."


    According to my estimations, he has only a few days left to live. It was expected since in the canon he died this year. My decision to not wait for holidays to visit was a good one.


    Black "I will call a healer from St. Mungo''s to come here and try to treat me. But after hearing that the poison has spread everywhere I don''t think I have much hope. I just don''t understand why my friend would even do this to me? He has nothing to from my death."


    I asked "Maybe he was threatened or bribed by Lucius Malfoy or Cygnus Black. They might have thought that after your death, they will gain control of the Black Fortunes."


    Black "You are probably right but I don''t think he was threatened. I could have easily helped him if that was the case. I think they bribed him. It makes so much sense now. It is the reason why he always spoke highly of Lucius in our conversations. He knew that I was searching for an Heir so he was trying to influence me to choose Lucius''s boy. He also tried to stop my search by citing my declining health. I will make him pay for betraying my trust."


    I said "If Malfoy is behind this, I don''t think you should go to St. Mungo''s. He may have informants there who can warn him about your visit. I think it is better if you see Master healers from other countries."


    I had another reason for this suggestion. According to my knowledge, poisoning at this stage was not treatable. But since my knowledge is based on Britain''s books, it might be possible that maybe other country''s healers are more advanced and have the skill to treat him.


    Black "That is possible. I will see what I can do about the healer problem."


    I asked "What is the name of the Healer friend? I will make sure that his descendants don''t have easy lives and curse him for it."


    Black "His name is Corvus Selwyn. Do what you want with that information. I think it is better for you to go back to Hogwarts now. I have a lot of work to do to make sure that my enemies do not get any benefits due to my death. I have to quickly change my Will. Elgar will apparate you back to Hogwarts."


    Not many people are left in the Selwyn and I think they supported Voldemort. I won''t kill them all as I did not want the family to become extinct but I will make sure that Corvus Selwyn''s descendants will not have an easy life.


    I replied "Okay. Bye grandfather. Take care. Keep me informed about your health. I will try to come here whenever I can."


    I gave him a hug during the goodbye because I was not sure if I will be able to see him again. I cannot visit him before the next Hogsmeade weekend and he may not be alive then.


    I then turned towards Elgar and said "Elgar take me to a secluded area in Hogsmeade near the Forbidden forest."


    Elgar replied "Yes, Young Master."


    He then popped me back to Hogwarts. I told him to inform me when grandfather''s condition becomes serious and said goodbye. I made the Black Heir ring invisible and made my way back to Hogwarts. My absence did not cause any problems because my friends were used to me disappearing for long times. They did not ask me where I went during those times since they knew that everyone had their secrets.


    I spent only a few hours at Black Castle and there was still a lot of time left before night so I decided to go to the library to read some books. I was worried about grandfather but there was nothing I could do to help him.

 Chapter 51 - Retaliation

    Grandfather''s retaliation was quick and efficient. I got to know about it through the prophet two days after my visit to the Black castle.


    First was an article about the mysterious death of Corvus Selwyn. He was found dead alone in bed at the Selwyn manor last night. There was no evidence of any struggle inside the house and there was no sign of any magical activity in his bedroom so the Aurors declared his death as natural. Even I would have thought it was a natural death if I did not know about his betrayal to grandfather. I was impressed due to the fact that grandfather was able to do this despite his current condition.


    Another article said that Lord Arcturus Black had sold all the contracts of unpaid Loans to the House of Black to the goblins. Now the goblins could do anything with those contracts. Many pureblood Lords had started selling of their ?ssets to repay these loans as soon as possible so as to avoid the increased interest rates charged by the goblins. This sudden move by Lord Black whom everyone ?ssumed to do anything about unpaid loans led to many rich purebloods losing large chunks of their fortunes. They had stopped paying back the loans that they had taken from the Black family when they found that Lord Black was not paying attention to the loans. This sudden action caught them off-guard and as they could not get the required money from other means, they had to sell some of their ?ssets. Everyone was confused by Lord Black''s sudden move and were speculating the reason.


    I was happy that grandfather had taken such an action. Most of the families that had unpaid loans were from the darker families that supported the Dark Lord. Now they will not have much extra cash to support the Dark Lord when he com s back. I am sure that Lucius Malfoy must have lost a lot of the Malfoy fortune due to this action taken by grandfather. Now he will not have enough money left to make Voldemort forgive him for his mistakes. I was going to do this anyway after I had taken control of the Black estate. I have a feeling grandfather is making sure that he has the whole estate properly under his control before he passes it over to me. He did not want me to take care of many troublesome things just after becoming Lord Black.


    After reading the articles I looked towards the Slytherin side to see their reactions. Judging by the high number of pale faces, I can deduce that many dark families had taken loans from the Black family.


    I was worried about the health of grandfather. Further research into the field in the ROR told that there was no treatment for it. Elgar had not come to me to inform me about grandfather''s health. He did not answer to my calls and to make matters worse I had forgotten the location of the Black castle so I could not visit and check. Grandfather must have put the castle under Fidelius to hide himself from the retaliation of the angry families. All these made me worry more.


    One week passed with no news about grandfather. Then one night I found a letter with the black crest on my study table in my room. I knew what this letter meant. With a heavy heart, I opened the letter and started reading.


    Dear Charles,


    By the time you will be reading this letter, I will be dead. I did go to a healer to get his opinion about my health but his diagnosis was that it was too late for me. At this stage of poisoning, any treatment would have led to my death. My old body would not be able to survive any treatment.


    Don''t mourn for me. I have lived long and my only wish during the last few years was to make sure that the Black family does not die out. I am leaving that to you now. I know that you are much stronger than what you revealed to me. The healer said the fact that you were able to diagnose me correctly meant that you were near the level of a trainee healer. I nearly jumped with joy after hearing that. Don''t worry, I did not reveal your identity to the healer.


    I am dying with so much happiness and hope for the future of the Black family. Hope was something that I was searching for, for many years. I am currently making sure that the black estate is correctly sorted out for you. I am also in the process of getting you a gift that I think you will need for your future endeavours. After I have acquired it, I will be leaving it with the Gringotts Black account manager along with my new will.


    Thank you for making the last few days of my life wonderful.


    Arcturus Black


    Lord of Most Ancient and Noble House of Black


    I had tears in my eyes by the time I had completed reading the letter. I had met him for only a few hours but he was the first ?du?t to have greatly impressed me in this world. There was so much I could learn from him. I had started calling him grandfather and was greatly impressed by his power and resourcefulness.


    It seems like I am not destined to have parental figures in my life. First was my mother who died after saying just a few words to me and now grandfather.


    I wiped my tears and promised in my heart to make his dream come true. I will make sure that both Falken family and Black family become the most powerful families in the future.


    I called Elgar and he popped into my room to answer my call. He looked haggard and it looked like he had been crying for a long time. He told me that he had performed the funeral of grandfather on his own, he followed all the steps in the Black family traditions and buried him in the Black family crypts. He had done this alone because he thought that I could not leave Hogwarts for it. I thanked him for it and gave the poor elf a hug. Grandfather must have meant a lot to him. Elgar broke down and started crying again. I continued hugging him till he calmed down.


    I told him that I will call him again after I have visited Gringotts and the will has been read. I told him to take care of the black castle and wait for my call. He nodded and popped away.


    So now everyone was speculating who the new Black Heir was. Draco could be seen loudly proclaiming him to be the new Heir. He and his father will get a rude awakening when they decide to visit Gringotts to claim the Heirship. I know that Lucius should be relying on Draco claiming the estate to help him during these tough times.

 Chapter 52 - Christmas Holidays and The Will

    The excitement about the new Black heir died down quickly as no new update on the topic was available to the press to write stories about. After that the days passed quietly without any interesting events. Soon it was the time for Christmas or the Yule holidays.


    I had finished Mastery level studies in the 3 fields a few days back and had moved on to Healing, Duelling and DADA mastery studies. These would be more important for my future battles. I planned on getting the stone during the time when the Mirror of Erised was removed from the empty room and placed in the third floor corridor which meant after the holidays. I had to wait because I was not sure about the current location of the stone. Whether it was in the mirror or in the room on the third floor.


    I opted to go back to London this time instead of staying like always at Hogwarts so that I could get the will of grandfather to be read. This was necessary because with the death of grandfather, I did not know who my new magical guardian was. If it was someone I did not like, I had to take some counter actions to protect myself and my interests.


    After the boring Hogwarts express ride, I made my way towards Gringotts. I had to be careful now. I had to make sure that my identity could not be leaked. I made my way towards the teller and after casting a wandless ''muffliato'' charm around the two of us, I asked to meet the Black account manager.


    He raised his eyebrows after hearing my words. I was sure that he had made the connection. The goblin gave me the widest gin that I had seen on a goblin. He called for another goblin and asked him to show me the way. I knew that he would sell the information to the highest bidder so while I was leaving with the other goblin, I sent a wandless memory charm towards him that modified his memory and made him think I had asked for the Falken account manager. I was highly proficient in memory charms and Legilimency after reading Voldemort''s memories.


    After the other goblin led me to the office of the Black account manager, I did the same to him. I then compelled him to leave so as to not cause any suspicion.


    After the goblin left, I knocked on the door of the office. A voice from the inside asked me to come in.


    When I entered the room, an old Goblin who sat behind the only desk in the room looked at me and then gave a toothy grin.


    He said "Lord Black informed me that he had passed the Black Heirship to someone on his last visit here a few weeks back. He was in a good mood when he told me that despite his approaching death. You must be the new Black Heir. Thank you wore igniting hope in him during his last days. He was a good friend. I am Gripclaw, the Black Family manager. May I know your name?"


    I replied "I am Charles Falken-Black, Heir of Most Ancient and Noble House of Falken and Black."


    Gripclaw "Yes. I heard about the Falken vaults getting activated a few years back. It seems you will have lots of responsibilities in the future, young man. Before we move forward, I must confirm your identity."


    I gave him some drops of my blood in the small vial that he had provided. He then dropped the blood on the special parchment. I made sure that no drop was left in the vial. After a magical reaction, a series of similar words started becoming visible on the parchment.


    Name: Charles Daniel Falken-Black


    Father: Daniel Robert Falken (pure-blood)


    Mother: Sara Emily Falken nee Acton (pure-blood)


    Heritage: Most Ancient and Noble House of Falken


    Most Ancient and Noble House of Black


    Vaults: 54 ¨C Falken Family vault - 1,035,264G


    704 ¨C Trust vault - 200 G


    26 - Black Family vault - 15,260,154G


    I was shocked after reading the number near the Black vault. With this much money, even without doing a job my great grandchildren too can lead a luxury life.


    Gripclaw "Good. Now we can move on to other businesses. You will see that only the Black Family vault is present in the list of vaults that is because the late Lord Black closed down all the other vaults and recalled in all unpaid loans for your convenience. Now it is time to read the will, since you are the main beneficiary, I can open it now. The official reading of the will will be a week later and you will not be needed to be there for that. No one will be informed about the identity of the new Heir but they will know that there is a new Heir."


    "I know that you will be worried about who your next magical guardian will be after my death. Don''t worry I took care of that. I took the liberty of getting you emancipated. With my connections I was able to get it done quickly and anonymously. You don''t have to worry about others finding out. I know, the freedom provided to you by this will come in handy in your endeavors."


    I was ecstatic after reading about this. This meant that I now have access to all my ?ssets which included the Falken manor. It also meant that I was in complete control of my affairs. No need to worry about Dumbledore meddling in them anymore. No ?du?t had ever helped me and understood me as much as grandfather and he only saw me for a few hours. I miss him.


    Gripclaw "From that reaction, I can guess that you have read about your emancipation. With the late Lord Black''s power in the ministry, there was no problem in getting it done. You are now considered an ?du?t according to the law. It is anonymous so it is your decision whether you want others to know about it or not. I will ask the Falken account manager to come here with the Lord ring to make it binding."


    After a few minutes, there was a knock and the Falken account manager, Gornuk entered the office. He had the ring box in his hands. He smiled after seeing me.


    Gornuk "I hear that you became Heir Black too, Heir Falken. Congratulations. I am expecting great things from you."


    I said "Thank you, Gornuk"


    Gornuk smiled and opened the ring box. He took out the Lord ring and gave it to me. Gripclaw also did the same thing.


    Gripclaw "Wear the Lord''s ring above your Heir''s ring. The Lord''s ring will replace the Heir one and the Heir one will go back into the ring box. Start with the Falken one since it was your first ring."


    I nodded and put the Falken Lord''s ring over the Heir''s ring. The ring flashed with bright light which meant the family magic testing me and the light soon died out. I then saw the Heir ring appearing in the opened ring box. I did the same thing with the Black Lord''s ring and again the same thing happened.


    Gripclaw "Congratulations Lord Falken-Black. Now if you pass me your wand, I can get the trace removed from it. It would have vanished on your magical maturity but due to your early emancipation, it must be done manually. Fortunately for you Gringotts has the ability to get it removed. Otherwise you would have had to get it removed at the ministry."


    I gave him my wand and he left the room with it. After a few minutes he returned and gave the wand back to me.


    Gripclaw "The trace has been removed. What next?"


    I replied "Can I read the rest of the will?"


    Gripclaw nodded and passed the file to me. I started going through it since I wanted to know who the other beneficiaries were.


    Grandfather had donated a lot of money to St. Mungo''s and other such organisations. There were many other beneficiaries who I did not recognize. I recognised only a few names. Harry was bequeathed the Black Town House in London along with Kreature and 50,000G. Draco was given a Beach Manor in france and the same amount of money as Harry. Narcissa too inherited 50,000G. All three of the bequeaths came with the condition that only they will be able to access their vaults. Even their guardians were banned from accessing them. Andromeda and Nymphadora were also given 50,000G. They will be very happy with this and could make good use of the money. Other people I did not recognize.


    I then gave the will back to Gripclaw and asked "I want to know the location of the Black Castle. I don''t think I will have time to manage the Black estate while I am at school so I will come back after graduation for that."


    Gripclaw nodded and told me the location and the location reappeared in my mind. It seems like Gripclaw was the secret keeper. I thanked him and left the office.


    After exiting Gringotts, I disillusioned myself and apparated to the Black Castle.

 Chapter 53 - Black Castle and Falken Manor

    I appeared in front of the familiar huge door of the Black Castle. My last visit was too short for me to tour the castle properly. I transformed into my animagus and started flying over the castle to get a good look of the surroundings and the castle.


    I found something that made me very happy. The Black castle was on an a sufficiently large Island in the sea and far away from the continent. The whole island was covered in a dense forest except for a small clearing in the middle where the Black castle was located. There were no other buildings on the island. It was my very own private island and I was sure that the non-magical people had no knowledge of it. When I was strong enough, I will hide the whole Island under the Fidelius and it would become my secret retreat.


    I flew over every inch of the island with my mage sight activated. There were no magical creatures on the island but I did see many small animals and snakes. Satisfied with my flight, I landed and transformed back into human. I was welcomed by Elgar near the door. He was in a much better condition today.


    Elgar "Welcome Master Charles."


    I said "Hello Elgar. Are you the only Elf in this castle?"


    Elgar "No there is Maggie Elf. She is in the kitchen. We both are responsible for the Black castle."


    I asked "Okay. I will meet her later. Are there any other Black elves?"


    Elgar "Only Kreature Elf who looks after the Black town house. Others were given to other families by Lord Black when he saw that he did not need many elves."


    I then called Sherry and Maggie. After introductions were done, I asked Elgar to take me to the Family crypts. I stood in front of grandfather''s grave for some time and paid my respects. I thanked him for everything he has done for me and promised in front of his grave to make his last wish come true.


    Next I asked Elgar and Maggie to give me a tour of the castle.


    The castle was centuries old. It had a dungeon which had the a huge Potion laboratory, Room for storing potion ingredients, A ritual room, A weapons room and a large prison with a lot of prison cells and torture chambers. Thankful the prison was empty and there was no evidence of it being used recently.


    The ground floor had a huge ballroom to hold events, a huge dining hall, a meeting room, the large kitchen and quite a number of guest rooms.


    The first floor was the family residence area. It had the master bedroom and many other rooms for family members.


    The second floor contained the Lord''s study, A huge Library, The family tree dated from the time the castle was built, A room for conducting experiments and many empty rooms.


    The third floor had many more rooms but they had been abandoned for over a century. I decided to remodel the third floor in the future for things related to the non magical world.


    The wards were in good condition. The black family wards were strong. Anyone trying to force their way in would be burnt to ashes by it. Even with my mastery knowledge, I found the ward scheme fascinating and whoever had done this must have been a genius.


    The complete tour took the whole day. It was too big. It would take centuries for my family to grow large enough to make use of the whole castle. But the castle was a good place to hide from the outside world.


    Sherry and Maggie prepared the food and after having Dinner I decided to spend the night in the castle. I used one of the guest rooms since the master bedroom was filled with Grandfather''s things.


    Next morning, I decided to visit the Falken Family manor. Sherry joined me. I apparated to the Falken Manor and stood in front of large gates. A drop of my blood on the gate removed the stasis charm over the manor.


    I flew into the sky and looked at the property. The manor was located in remote part of Scotland on a mountain surrounded by forests. I had a lot of open clear spaces surrounding the manor. The manor was two storied and looked like similar to the old English Castles.


    Sherry knew the place and showed me the inside of the manor. The manor had similar layout to that of the Black castle but was only two storied.


    The dungeon consisted of a huge ritual chamber and a huge potions laboratory with a store room for storing potions ingredients. On the ground floor was a huge kitchen, a huge ballroom to host events, a huge dining hall and many guest rooms. The first floor was the family residence area. There was a master bedroom, a master study, a huge library and a lot of other rooms.


    After that I went to the ward room and started updating the existing wards and adding new ones. I did not have enough magic reserves to perform the Fidelius on the huge manor so I left that for later. But due to the strong wards that I had placed, the property did not need much more protection.


    While I was resting after the tiring work on the wards, Elgar came back with the two elves. Their names were Seb and Liz. They were in very bad condition physically and were wearing rags. Elgar said that they are good elves but their masters do not treat them well. Since they used to be Black elves and grandfather had not properly cast them out, I can take back the ownership of them forcefully and save them from their current tough life even though they have bonds with their new masters.


    I quickly bonded with them, making sure that their previous bond was broken and then told Elgar to train them properly. I told them to look after the Falken Manor after their training was completed.


    When it was late, I apparated to my London home. The rooms in the manor were not in a good condition for me to live in. Since I had some time left, I decided to update the wards here.


    I went to the ward stone of the house and checked the wards on it. It was a very poor selection of wards and were just basic wards. I guess the warding was done by my parents and they did not know much about warding. I decided to start anew and removed all the wards from the ward stone before adding new ones. I added all the protective wards that I could think of including anti-animagus wards and intent wards which would tell me the intent of all people inside the house to the ward scheme. It was now almost impossible for people to enter my house without my permission only some very powerful wizards or ward breakers could enter my premises without my permission.


    I was tired by the time I had finished warding the house to meet by satisfaction. After a small dinner I decided to go to sleep.

 Chapter 54 - Holidays and Acquiring the Stone

    I had lots of days left before the holidays ended and I had to go back to Hogwarts. It meant that I had lots of time available to complete many of my plans.


    Now that I had gained access to the Falken Manor and the Black Castle, I had to properly arrange my things in my three properties.


    I decided that the Black castle will be my secret retreat and no one will be allowed there. The Falken Manor will be used as family accommodation when I have a family in the future and to hold parties. The London home will be the place I stay till my family is big enough to live in the Falken Manor.


    Keeping this in mind, I started moving various things in the three places around. All the questionable books and potion ingredients that I had collected over the years were moved to Black Manor. There was no need for a potion lab in my London home so I cleaned out the room and made it into a guest room.


    Next thing to do was looking through all the books in the Library in London home, the Falken Manor and the Black Castle and then make a list of all the books that I owned to start categorizing them. It was time consuming but with the help of my elves I was able to do it in a few days. Now that I had the proper list of books owned I started splitting the books among the three libraries.


    The library in London home would contain only common books and books needed for NEWT level studies. All the questionable books in this library and Falken Manor were moved to the Black castle. Most of the rare books were also moved to the Black castle. Only the rare books of which I had an extra copy were left behind in the Falken Library. I then went through the list and properly categorized them on the paper. Next the elves were tasked with properly arranging the books according to my plan in the three libraries. The task may seem time consuming but using their elf magic my elves were able to finish the task in a single day.


    Elgar had previously showed me a secret vault in the Black castle where imprtant things were stored by Grandfather. I also started storing all the important things there. I did not plan on using Gringotts for storing all my fortune. There was no advantage in storing my money in the bank vaults since there was no interest provided. With my wards I could have the same kind of protection that the Gringotts vaults provided for this vault too. I decided that the money that were currently stored in the bank vaults will be left there to keep my status high in the society but the money I make from my hunts and other things in the future will be stored in this vault. I also used the vault to safely store the Diadem Horcrux.


    I put the vault and the Library under Fidelius for now since I was not completely sure that no one knew the location of the Black castle. I could not put a new Fidelius over the whole castle since casting the charm over the large area required more magical reserves than my current reserves. So for now I had to protect the vault and library separately. I made Elgar the secret keeper and told him to share the secret with the other elves.


    Seeing the large areas of Forest surrounding the Black castle going unused, I decided to do something with it. After a lot of thinking, I decided to use a small part of the forest for an Acromantula nest. The forbidden forest provided me with very good specimens of Acromantula. Currently I was killing the spiders and selling the parts to make money. While this produced a lot of income for me, the webs of the Acromantula had the most demand and were sold for a high prise in the market. They were used to make the costly Acromantula robes. If I follow my current path, I will not get more webs after I have exterminated all the spiders in the Forbidden Forest.


    Since I had a lot of land, I could spare some for an Acromantula nest. First I had to prepare a safe enclosure for them from which they can never escape from. So the rest of the holidays was spent converting a small part of the forest about a tenth into an enclosure for Acromantula. Due to the presence of a ley line under the island, I easily created wards that would stop the Acromantula from leaving the enclosure and also wards to stop others from entering it.


    By the end of the holidays, the enclosure was prepared for the Acromantula. Now all I needed to do was transport some young and healthy Acromantula here from the Forbidden forest and they will give me steady amount of webs to sell every year.


    While I was busy with making the Acromantula enclosure, the elves were busy with another thing I had asked them to do. I had asked them to go to No.12 Grimmauld place bring me the Locket horcrux without alerting Kreacher. It will be very easy for them since they were Black elves and Kreacher was older and weaker than them. He also had lost most of his sanity due to the constant exposure to the Horcrux. I decided to use this method instead of asking Kreacher directly due to the fact that Kreacher had another master and he would be forced to spill everything when asked by him. I also asked them to remove all the Dark books and Black family items from the place and add them to my collection. They were safer in my hands. I will not allow Dumbledore and Molly Weasley to destroy them.


    The elves completed their task without any problems. I added the books to my library and stored the Slytherin Locket in the secret vault. I was not in a rush to destroy the Horcrux.


    Soon the holidays were over and I was back at Hogwarts.


    Reaching the the third floor corridor and the door leading to the chamber containing the obstacle course, I saw that there were wards placed on the door to alert Dumbledore when a student enters the room. I bypassed the wards very easily without alerting Dumbledore. The three headed dog, Fluffy behind the door did not look dangerous at all. It just looked at me like any other dog waiting for me to act. I conjured a flute and charmed it to play. Fluffy became drowsy on hearing the music and soon fell asleep. Tackling the next obstacle, devil snare was a piece of cake. Then to get the old key I transformed into a falcon and caught it using by beaks. Again it too was easy. I did not dare using the broom provided as it might be cursed. The chess set was the easiest as I just flew over it bypassing the test completely. For trolls, I made myself invisible, hid my scent and slowly crossed the two trolls present there. The riddle was too easy but to not leave any traces, I just protected myself using spells and passed through the door without using the potions provided. Along the way there were many detection wards which I bypassed easily.


    I now reached a brightly lit room occupied only by a large mirror, the Mirror of Erised in the centre. I walked towards the mirror bypassing various types of wards that were placed in the room by Dumbledore. I then stood in front of the mirror. I was curious to see what my inner d?s?r? was. I don''t know the reason, whether it was my superior occlumency, or that I had no deep d?s?r?s, or that I was truly happy with just being born in a fantasy world, the mirror showed only my reflection just like any other ordinary mirror. I just shrugged the matter off and did not think too deeply into it.


    After studying the mirror and its enchantments, I found that the stone was not stored in the mirror. It was stored away somewhere else and would be summoned when certain conditions were met. The mirror was enchanted to give the stone only to Harry when he stands in front of it. The thing about the stone going to the person who wants to save it and not use it was just a made up story sprouted by Dumbledore to appease Harry and praise him. So now I couldn''t get the stone in the way that Harry got it.


    I had to use my mage sight to track the connection that was present between the mirror and the stone and follow it. The connection led me to a small corner in the hall which was protected by many strong wards. After breaking the wards carefully in a way that did not alert Dumbledore, I found the red colour philosopher stone in the corner. I studied the stone and found that the stone was the real deal and not a fake. Foolish decision by the Flamels to entrust their master piece in the hands of Dumbledore. It seems like they had gone senile due to their old age and it was time for them to move on.


    I then exchanged the real stone with a convincing fake made up of a similar material which had the same aura. The fake was enough to fool anyone till they decided to experiment. The real stone had some tracking spells on them which I transferred to the fake. Next I replaced the all wards that were protecting the real stone and confirmed that the enchantment in the mirror would work properly.


    Return journey was simple. I just flew back as a falcon while making sure that everything was left in the same way as it was before I entered and I left no traces. I called Sherry and told her to double check whether I left any traces. After she came back and ?ssured me, I gave her the stone and told her to store it in my secret vault.


    I really want to see Dumbledore''s reaction when he finds out the stone was a fake.

 Chapter 55 - The Detention in the Forbidden Forest

    After acquiring the philosopher stone, I did not pay any attention to the other things that the Golden trio got themselves involved in. I also stopped providing nutrient potions to Harry since his treatment was over. Currently he was of nearly the same height as his classmates and did not look like an abused child. He was not completely healed of malnutrition as it was not possible and some small problems will always remain in his body but major health problems in the future were prevented due my early and quick treatment of the malnutrition.


    The next few months were quiet without anything interesting happening so I decided to concentrate more on my studies. This was the only chance I would get to read Voldemort''s memories so I had to make use of it as much as I can. His knowledge in other fields was lacking but he had good knowledge on Dark arts and some arcane magic which were enlightening. I also continued to prank Quirrell continuously. It was fun to see his fear and a genuine stutter whenever I pranked his turban. Voldy most probably became mad and scolded Quirrell on those occasions.


    Soon it was time for the next interesting incident involving Harry Potter. The dragon egg, smuggling dragon and forbidden forest incident. After long quiet gap since this happened only in May. The incident happened as it had in the canon without any difference. It was annoying to see no change in Harry''s reckless behaviour. I don''t know how he and his friends gained the courage to smuggle a dragon out of Hogwarts. They must have just informed McGonagall and she would have taken care of the dragon with the help of Dumbledore. There was no way Dumbledore was going to report his loyal half giant and get him arrested.


    Stealing the baby dragon did cross my mind as this was the easiest possible way for me to acquire a dragon but when I thought about the problems I would have to face to take care of it and feed it, I decided the dragon was not worth the trouble. Creating a proper enclosure for a dragon was very hard due to their high strength and magical resistance. If I had a way to communicate with a dragon, then I would be more interested in the idea but for now it was just asking for trouble.


    While smuggling the dragon out of Hogwarts, Harry, Neville, Hermione and Draco were caught outside during curfew by McGonagall. Same as in the canon. I did not like the fact that McGonagall punished them too harshly. She took only the normal penalty of 20 points from Malfoy when she saw him in the halls after curfew but her Gryffindor cubs were penalised with 50 points each. Over the points loss she also gave them detention. The detention was given to poor Neville too even though he did not do anything wrong was outside only to warn his friends. She did not even allow them to defend themselves. It looks like she was taking the frustration of her hectic job on the children. She must really consider stepping down from one of her posts.


    The three Gryffindor had it rough in their house after their House found out they were responsible for the point loss. They were shunned and insulted by the whole house. There was no physical bullying involved so I did not act and let the three face their troubles on their own.


    I wanted Harry to see the true face of the Gryffindor house. What the house had changed into over the years. That it was not the house of the brave. It was now the house where mob mentality was followed and where they considered the decision taken by the majority to be the right one. They were also too stubborn to change their views even if they knew it was wrong. Like it is happening now, not everyone blamed the three for losing points and some blamed McGonagall but since majority decided that they were at fault, no one had the courage to go against the majority.


    What I found funny was the fact that the three of them must have earned far more points for the house than what they had lost. The troll incident alone had given them 150 points which should have negated the hate for the points lost by them. But the Gryffindors were never known for their intelligence or common sense.


    Hence the days passed without anyone coming to save the three from the shunning and insults and soon it was the time for their detention. I decided to tail the group from the sky during their detention to see the action for myself.


    I saw Filch taking the four children to Hagrid and then Hagrid taking them along with his dog to the forest. What I found surprising was the fact that Hagrid was not sorry for the problems his actions had caused for Harry and Hermione. He was instead all for the detention and was not speaking with them in his usual kind manner. It seemed like he was angry at them for taking away his dragon instead of being thankful that they saved him from a prison sentence in Azkaban.


    From the sky, I could see another person following them from a safe distance. It was Dumbledore in his colourful robes. It seems like Dumbledore was not stupid enough to leave the safety of these students in Hagrid''s hands. Even he has to consider the consequences of anything happening to the Boy-who-lived, the Malfoy Heir or the Longbottom Heir in the forest. If anything happens to any of them inside the forest, the career he has built up will be destroyed. No amount of favours or status will help him from a sentence at Azkaban.


    After some time, when they saw unicorn blood, the group decided to foolishly split into two teams and go separate ways. Then same as canon, Harry meets the centaurs, Bane and Ronan first when he was in a group with Hermione and Hagrid. After that the groups are changed and Harry is teamed up with Malfoy.


    Harry and Malfoy see Voldy drinking unicorn blood and when Voldy tries to attack Harry, he gets saved by the Centaur, Firenze. Firenze allows Harry to hop on his back and then takes him to Hagrid. Then Hagrid decides to cut short the detention and leads the children back to the castle. Dumbledore also leaves the group and apparates back to the castle. Merits of being the headmaster and being in control of the wards.

 Chapter 56 - Daily Prophet

    The whole incident provided me with a great opportunity to destroy Dumbledore''s image or at the very least make people doubt Dumbledore. I wrote a letter to everyone''s favourite reporter and told her the details of the many events that had taken place at Hogwarts this year. I can''t wait to see what she does with this information.


    Next day, the Daily prophet contained a long beautiful article that covered the whole front page.


    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    BOY-WHO-LIVED NARROWLY ESCAPES DEATH FOR THE THIRD TIME AT HOGWARTS


    IS HOGWARTS SAFE FOR OUR CHILDREN?


    By Rita Skeeter


    We all believe Hogwarts to be the safest place on the planet. But Hogwarts has been the most dangerous place for the past few months ever since Harry Potter, the Boy-who-lived started attending the school. Harry Potter has faced multiple attempts on his life during his short term at Hogwarts and he has narrowly escaped death every time due to luck just like he did all those years back.


    Just yesterday at midnight, he was attacked by a dangerous creature in the Forbidden Forest and would have died of not for a centaur saving him. Now everyone will be wondering what was he doing inside the dangerous Forbidden forest in the first place when students are forbidden from entering it. Well I was shocked after finding out the reason. It seems Harry Potter was attending a detention in the forest with his friends.


    Now you will be wondering what terrible crime did he and his friends commit for them to be punished this severely. Well it was a something small, the act of roaming out on the halls after curfew. We would think the professor will favour the Boywholived and not penalise him for something like this but it was the opposite. He was harshly punished. He and his friends were penalised 50 points each. This was severe enough but the professor was not satisfied, she wanted to punish them more and decided to give them detention in the forbidden forest.


    You would think detention at Forbidden forest was bad but this detention was much worse than a simple visit to the forest. The four first year students were tasked with finding a creature that was hunting unicorns in the Forest. Four first years who may not know even a single spell to be able to defend themselves were tasked with finding a dangerous creature in the dangerous Forbidden forest. Headmaster Dumbledore should have called Aurors for something like that.


    You would think that at least there will be a professor to protect them from the danger but you will be wrong. The ?du?t they had with them for protection was Rubeus Hagrid, the Hogwarts gatekeeper who cannot do magic.


    It seems like Headmaster Dumbledore has gone senile with old age and started to believe the story books about the Boy who lived. He must have thought that Harry Potter will take care of the creature easily like he does in the books. We know he knew about this detention because without his approval a detention like this would not be allowed.


    What worries me is the identity of the other children involved. The four children were Harry Potter, Madam Longbottom''s grandson Neville Longbottom, Lord Malfoy''s son Draco Malfoy and a muggleborn witch. Makes you wonder if this was a political move by Dumbledore giving a warning to the Light and the Dark side that he has their children in his control and they must agree to his demands in the Wizengamot to ensure the safety of their children at Hogwarts. We know that madam Longbotton and Lord Malfoy are not his loyal supporters.


    This incident was not the only time that Harry Potter had a close encounter with death at Hogwarts. On Halloween a Troll somehow made its way into the castle and nearly killed him and other students. It was quick thinking by Harry Potter that saved his and another student''s life. I wonder how a Troll was able to enter Hogwarts when Hogwarts is known for its strong wards that repel magical creatures. Another thing to consider is that there is no troll habitat near Hogwarts. Someone brought it inside Hogwarts. I wonder why Aurors were not called for an investigation.


    Another incident where Harry Potter was nearly killed was during a Quidditch match. Harry Potter, the youngest seeker in the century was playing in that match. In the match it is suspected that someone was jinxing his broom as he lost control of it in the middle of the game when he was high above the ground. Only after a small fire broke out in the professor''s stands did he get the broom back into his control. Makes you wonder if a professor was involved in the jinxing incident. We know that there is a Death Eater posing as a professor in the school.


    Now you can see one thing common in all three incidents. All the three incidents happened due to the hostile actions or the negligence of the Headmaster and the other professors. It seems like Hogwarts is not safe for our children anymore.


    My sources say that You-know-who cursed the Potter that night when he was vanquished. The boy was cursed to face many dangerous situations in his life. I believe my source is right. This is just the first year and already our children were put in deadly danger. If the troll had found a group of students before it was taken care of, we would be mourning the deaths of the children. Harry Potter still has 6 more years at Hogwarts. I am not sure if Hogwarts will still be standing by the time he graduates.


    For the safety of our children we must transfer them to other schools or expel Harry potter and let him be privately tutored like he was taught before joining Hogwarts. None of our children have his luck and will die when get pulled into the dangerous situations involving the Boy-Who-Lived. I hope the Hogwarts Governors get involved.


    I was amused after reading the article. I only gave her the information about the incidents and did not tell her how to write the article. It seems Rita skeeter cannot write an article without ruining the image of the people involved. I should have given her some guidelines to follow. I did not like her blaming Harry and an imaginary curse but there is nothing I can do about it.


    Harry, McGonagall, Snape and Dumbledore. All of them were insulted and blamed in the article. Rita was not worried about the retaliation. It seems like she believes that her Beetle animagus form will allow her to escape and hide from all threats. I cannot wait for the aftermath of the letter.


    I looked around and saw that everyone was looking at Harry and blaming him for the dangerous situations. Harry was pale with fear. Maybe he was wondering if there really was a curse involved since for him it looked like his life was cursed. He was in danger everyday he was in the Dursley house.


    I got some good reactions from the professors too. Snape was angry that he was blamed for the Quidditch incident. McGonagall looked pale with fear.She did not like being compared to a Death Eater. Quirrell was conflicted. Happy that Dumbledore was going to have a tough few months but worried that now Aurors will come to investigate. Dumbledore did not have the twinkling eyes and smile anymore. I think his brain is working in overdrive to find a way to get out of this situation.


    I can''t wait to see the reactions of the parents of the children and the Minister of Magic.

 Chapter 57 - Prophet Aftermath - I

    The students did not have much time to discuss the allegations in the prophet as they had to make their way towards their morning classes. They were dissatisfied with the lack of response by the professors. The professors just stood up and left the room after their breakfast.


    I had History of magic in the morning so me and my Ravenclaw year mates continued to discuss the revelations in the prophet in the class. I participated in the discussion a few times but my attention was elsewhere.


    While everyone was discussing the allegations, I was looking at a small mirror in my hands. I had successfully replicated the communication mirror that Sirius Black had gifted Harry during his fifth year. This invention made me appreciate the brilliance of marauders more. The marauders may be unruly pranksters but no one can deny that they were genius inventors with their crazy prank ideas and inventions like the marauder map and the communication mirror.


    Sherry had already placed the twin of the mirror in my hand, inside the Headmaster''s office. The mirror had been made invisible so it would not be found by anyone. Now I could monitor the Headmaster and watch his reactions whenever events like these happened.


    The mirror was designed in such a way that only the person holding the mirror could hear what was happening on the other side. This way I could watch everything without worrying about anyone hearing anything and asking questions.


    <Mirror View>


    Dumbledore was sitting in his office while McGonagall and Snape stood on the other side of his table. McGonagall was angry.


    McGonagall "Hagrid took the children into the Forbidden Forest to hunt a dangerous creature? Why am I hearing about this for the first time in the prophet? How dare he do that? Because of him I am being accused of being a death eater."


    Dumbledore "I don''t know why he did that. I had asked him to investigate the increasing number of attacks on unicorns a few days back but I had no idea that he would take the children with him to investigate."


    Snape "Don''t blame Hagrid. You being compared to a death eater was mainly due to the harsh punishment. 50 points each and detention. Even I do not take that many points at once from the dunderheads."


    McGonagall "They deserved it. Fooling a student into believing they had a Dragon and making him violate curfew to report that to me. This led to four students violating the curfew during these dangerous times."


    Dumbledore "It was not a made up story, Minerva. Harry did have a dragon with him that night. Hagrid somehow got his hands on a Dragon egg and decided to raise it in his hut. Harry and his friends were saving Hagrid from a sentence in Azkaban by smuggling the dragon out of Hogwarts with the help of Charlie Weasley who works at a dragon reserve. Mr. Malfoy was spying on them and decided to report this to you in the hope that you will expel them."


    Snape "Draco did tell me the all the details. I decided to leave the incident alone since more investigation into it would have led to the dunderheads and the oaf spending rest of their lives in Azkaban. Gryffindors and their lack of intelligence. They should have come to us with the information and we would have helped the oaf. It would have avoided all this drama."


    McGonagall "Then why did they not tell me the reason? I would not have been that harsh if they had explained the details to me. They must hate me now. The loss of points made them a pariah in the Gryffindor house and I decided to not do anything to help them due to my anger."


    Dumbledore "You are getting angry a lot these days. In your anger you must have not allowed them to explain things to you. Don''t worry you can earn back their trust back in time and they will forgive you. We will talk abot this later. We have guests."


    The Fireplace in the office lit up and a face could be seen in the embers. The face spoke "Dumbledore open the Floo. Some people and I would like to come through to discuss the things said revealed in today''s Prophet."


    Dumbledore sighed and opened the Floo conection in the fireplace "Ok Cornelius. You can come through now."


    The floo flamed and many people came through it. The people were Cornelius Fudge, Lucius Malfoy, Amelia Bones, Augusta Longbottom and two other people in Auror uniform.


    Dumbledore "This quite a party. What can I do for you?"


    Malfoy "Cut the act Dumbledore and tell us whether the things written in today''s paper are true or not?"


    Dumbledore "Unfortunately, the incidents described are true. But the allegations against the professors are false. Rita cannot write an article without trying to destroy someone''s good image."


    Amelia "Why was my department not notified, Headmaster? It the DMLE''s job to investigate incidents like the troll inside the school."


    Dumbledore "I thought it was not necessary since we have a lot of qualified professors at Hogwarts capable of finding and capturing the culprit. I did not want to increase the work load of your department just for the small incident."


    Amelia "You did not have the right to make that decision Dumbledore. It was not a small incident and I should have been informed. If your professors are more capable than my aurors, tell me did you find the culprit?"


    Dumbledore "Unfortunately not. I did find that the ward blocking creatures like the troll from entry into Hogwarts was malfunctioning and repaired it. So incident like the troll will never happen again."


    Amelia "Then you should have called the auror department. We will not rest until we find the culprit. Minister, I would like your permission to investigate the incidents that took place at Hogwarts."


    Dumbledore "It is not needed Amelia. I have everything under control."


    Fudge "Permission granted Madam Bones. No Dumbledore I cannot deny this request. Many ministry employees have come to me to and asked me to find the culprit. They have threatened to remove their children from Hogwarts if nothing is done."


    Amelia "Thank you minister." she then turned towards the two aurors and continued "You both go around the school and start the investigation. You can call for more aurors if required. I will join you after this meeting."


    The Aurors nodded and left the office.


    Malfoy "Moving on. I would like to know the identity of the professor who ?ssigned my son detention inside the Forbidden Forest to investigate the attacks on unicorns?"


    McGonagall "It was me but I only planned for them to serve their detention with Hagrid. I did not know anything about the unicorns or Hagrid''s plans to take them with him into the forest."


    Madam Longbottom "You ?ssigned 11 year olds detention with Hagrid at midnight which is well past their sleeping time. This itself was wrong. Don''t push all the blame towards Hagrid. We will discuss the punishments later. I will wait for the results of the DMLE investigation before O call a Governors meeting to decide the punishments. First I would like to meet my grandson and see if he is fine."


    Malfoy "I would like to see my son too. If I find that he was hurt yesterday, I will make sure that the you will get severely punishment by the board."


    After that both Malfoy and Longbottom left the office with McGonagall and Snape.


    Cornelius "What is going on Dumbledore? Is it true that Harry Potter was cursed by You Know Who? Many people have asked me this question today."


    Dumbledore "No. That is just Rita making things up."


    Amelia "If anymore dangerous incidents happen around him, many people will start believing it. I am considering transferring Susan to France. I can''t risk anything happening to her."


    Dumbledore "Don''t worry. All these are coincidences. Another thing like this will not happen at Hogwarts."


    <Mirror View End>


    The class was over so I stopped watching. Next class was Herbology so I will not be able to continue watching the drama.


    On my way to the dungeons, I saw one of the aurors going around asking questions. I needed them to investigate the third floor corridor before Dumbledore decides remove all the traps so I confounded a random girl to go talk to the Auror.


    Girl "Hello Mister. Are you an Auror?"


    Auror "Yes Miss. I am an Auror."


    Girl "Are you here to investigate the third floor corridor?"


    Auror "I came to investigate the troll incident. Why? What is wrong with the third floor corridor?"


    Girl "During the Opening feast of this year, Headmaster Dumbledore warned us to not go there. He told us that we would die painfully if we go there."


    Auror "Thank you for informing me about this. I will take care care of the threat."


    Then the auror rushed towards his partner who was nearby. The talked amongst themselves and then made their way towards the third floor corridor. I smiled at this and them removed the traces of Confundus Charm from the girl. She would remember this incident but will think that she did all this herself and no outside force was involved.


    I was sad that I will not be able to watch the reactions of Madam Bones and others after hearing about the Cerberus. I will have to add a record feature to the mirror soon. I don''t want to miss reactions like this in the future.

 Chapter 58 - Prophet Aftermath - II

    <No POV>


    HEADMASTER''S OFFICE


    Dumbledore was standing in his office and trying to appease the Minister while promising both the Minister and Madam Bones that nothing like this will ever happen at Hogwarts again.


    Dumbledore thought "I should not have allowed Hagrid to take Harry into the Forbidden Forest. It has led to all these problems. Now I will have to change the plans I had about Harry confronting Tom. I would have to either abort the plan or make sure that the incident remains a secret. Another dangerous incident involving Harry will make others truly believe Rita''s allegations and consider removing their children from Hogwarts.


    Damn that woman. From where did she get the idea to allege such a thing. Now I have to make sure that any future incidents I use to test Harry remains a secret or else I will be forced to expel him from Hogwarts to appease others."


    While Dumbledore was lost in his thoughts, Malfoy and Madam Longbottom returned to the office followed by the professors.


    Malfoy "You are very fortunate Headmaster that Draco was not harmed yesterday. Now I cannot harshly punish those involved. But at the very least I will make sure that your plans of making that oaf the next Care of Magical Creatures professor after the current one retires are foiled. This incident is enough to convince the others governors that our children are not safe near him."


    Madam Longbottom "I also agree that Hagrid is not suited to be a teacher. If he thinks Forbidden forest is safe for first years then I am afraid to think what dangerous creatures he will deem safe for the children in his classes.


    Minerva should also be punished. The punishment I am considering for her is removing her from the Head of the House position. Neville was hurt yesterday and I heard that he was hurt during his first flying class too. She did not do her job and inform me about these incidents. After asking some other children I have come to know that she is neglecting a lot of her important duties as Head of Gryffindor house. I will not allow this to continue.


    I recommend looking for a replacement for the Head of Gryffindor. During the next Governors meet, I am sure many people will agree with me on the punishment suggested after I show them my findings."


    McGonagall did not look happy but she did not try to argue since she knew that due to her other posts she was not performing her duties as the Head of the House properly.


    Dumbledore was also not happy but he could not do anything to save her from the punishment. McGonagall spent a lot of time doing some of his work due to him being busy with his other jobs. This led to her neglecting most of her other duties. Hagrid will also be disappointed after hearing that his dreams of teaching a class will not come true.


    Suddenly the two Aurors rushed into the room and whispered something in Madam Bones''s ear. After they were finished relaying the news, Madam Bones looked mad and while glaring at Dumbledore she went towards the fireplace and called for reinforcements using the Floo.


    Madam Bones "You have a lot of explaining to do Headmaster. Can you explain why you have a Cerberus inside the school and why is it behind a door that is locked by only a simple locking charm that can be opened by a first year spell?"


    Dumbledore paled at the revealation but did not reply. The other attendants in the room including the Minister gasped.


    Madam Bones "I am calling more Aurors and people from Department of Control of Magical Creatures to take care of it. Don''t dare deny having knowledge of the creature since we have many witnesses of you announcing the danger in front of the whole school during the opening feast."


    She was going to continue but was interrupted when the Floo lit up and many people came through it. Some Aurors and some people from the Department of Control of Magical Creatures.


    Dumbledore found his voice after seeing a lot of people in the room and said "You are mistaken, that is not a Cerberus. It is just a three headed dog and is Hagrid''s pet. He has ?ssured me that it will not harm any student. Don''t harm it. If you want, I will ask Hagrid to remove it from the castle safely."


    Malfoy "I have never heard of a three headed dog before. It must be a Cerberus. Kill the creature. I don''t want it to be anywhere near Hogwarts where it can harm my son."


    Amelia "I agree. If it is not possible to safely subdue the creature, kill it. I am not risking the lives of others just for Hagrid to have his pet back. Also investigate why it was inside the castle in the first place. I don''t think we will get a straight answer from the Headmaster. We will ask for an explanation from him when we have uncovered the whole plot ourselves."


    The Aurors and the people from the Department of Control of Magical Creatures nodded and left the room. After they left, Madam Bones explained the whole situation to everyone else in the room.


    Madam Longbottom "Dumbledore. Why is such a dangerous creature inside Hogwarts near the children? And are you mad? You also announced that the third floor corridor was dangerous to a crowd of curious children who would have gone there as a challenge. I think you have gone senile with old age and need to be replaced for the safety of the children."


    Amelia "Professor McGonagall. As the Deputy Headmistress you must know about this. Explain to me what the creature was doing inside the school or else your punishment will increase."


    Dumbledore sighed "There is no need to ask Minerva. I will explain. You see before the start of the school year, Nicholas Flamel asked my help in safeguarding his philosopher stone. The Flamels had heard rumours about a Dark wizard coming after the stone and wanted my help in finding a good place to hide it. I agreed to help them and decided to protect the stone inside Hogwarts since it is highly secure due to the wards. It is stored behind a series of traps in the third floor corridor."


    McGonagall added "Albus asked all the other professors to install a series of traps in the corridor for extra protection. The three headed dog was a trap designed by Hagrid. Once you overcome that, you will have to face one trap after another until the end of the corridor."


    Madam Bones "So you decided it was wise decision to house a highly dangerous artefact that is being hunted by many dark wizards inside a school full of children. I agree with Madam Longbottom, You are mad. It seems a dark wizard did manage to overcome the Hogwarts wards and is after the stone. That will explain all the attacks on Harry Potter this year."


    Madam Longbottom "Poor boy. Because of your decision he had to face many life threatening situations. I want that stone out of this school by the day''s end. I will bring up this issue in front of the Wizengamot after the investigation is complete. Your punishment will be decided by them since the Governors cannot decide due to severity of the issue. I will take my leave now. Amelia inform me when the investigation is concluded."


    Fudge "I am going too. Madam Bones, I am giving you free reign to catch the dark wizard involved. I want him in prison and away from Hogwarts as soon as possible."


    With that Madam Longbottom, Fudge and Malfoy left the school via the Floo.


    Madam Bones turned towards the Professors and ordered "I want you to suspend all classes until the dark wizard is found. Send all the children to their dormitories and make sure that they stay there until the investigation is completed."


    Madam Bones then left to join her Aurors. Dumbledore and McGonagall decided to complete the task she had given them since she was now in control and they couldn''t do anything to stop her. They called a meeting of all professors to inform them about the new development.

 Chapter 59 - Confrontation

    <MC POV>


    RAVENCLAW COMMON ROOM


    The common room was packed. All students had been sent back to the common rooms by the professors and no one knew why which led to the children discussing the reason amongst themselves. I was also sitting with my year mates and listening to their discussion about this development.


    Damien tuned to me and asked "So why were we sent back to the common room by Professor Sprout without any explanation? Any guesses Charles?"


    I replied "It must have something to do with the Prophet article. I saw two Aurors roaming around the castle on my way towards class. They must be investigating the allegations."


    Elena "Finally they are going to act. I was expecting them to come to Hogwarts after the troll attack. At least they are taking action now. I hope they catch whoever is killing those unicorns."


    Suddenly everyone became silent. The door to the common room had opened and Professor Flitwick had entered.


    Flitwick "Today''s classes have been cancelled. Aurors are looking around the castle to catch the culprit behind all the incidents reported in today''s Prophet. Until they catch the culprit, all of you are forbidden from leaving your dormitories. You don''t have to worry about food as Hogwarts house elves will bring food to your rooms. Prefects, you are in charge. Make sure no one leaves their rooms."


    With that he left the room in a hurry. His presence mist be needed during the search for the culprit. The prefects took charge and told everyone to go back to their rooms. Everyone was disappointed since they wanted to know more about the new development. But they could do nothing but obey the prefect. Soon everyone including me were in our rooms.


    I told everyone that I was going to sleep and asked them not to disturb me before closing the door to my room. I had to do this to make sure that no one noticed my absence. It was time for me to confront Voldemort.


    Getting the philosopher stone was not possible for Voldemort anymore with the Aurors patrolling the castle. He must be looking at his options right now. So to make sure that he does not take any drastic actions using Quirrell''s body leading to death and destruction, I had to exorcise him quickly. The spell for exorcising a spirit was easy to find in the ROR. It will drive Voldemort''s spirit away from Quirrell''s body easily.


    In the spirit from, it was not possible for me to kill him. I had to wait for him to regain his body before doing that. For now, I just had to drive him. After getting ejected from Quirrell''s body, he will be too weak mentally to possess another person for a long time.


    The only problem was that I had to face him directly and had to hide my identity during the confrontation. The only way to do that is to disguise myself using Polyjuice potion. I had already decided on the candidate I was disguising into this morning and was just waiting for Sherry to provide me with the hair of the person and the pre-made Polyjuice potion. Sherry had bought the potion from a Potion Master who resided in France. Since this plan was made just yesterday, I did not have the time to brew my own potion.


    Soon Sherry popped into the room and happily gave me the two ingredients, some blond colour hair and the potion. Now that I had the potion ready, I had to leave the Ravenclaw common room without getting noticed and wait for the perfect time to drink the potion and confront Voldemort.


    I changed my clothes into the robes my target usually wore. It was a little big for me but it was manageable. Then using my invisibility cloak and some ''notice me not'' charms on the various doors, I quickly left the common room unoticed.


    While looking at the Marauder Map, I carefully made my way towards the DADA class room. The professor''s room was attached to the DADA class room. After reaching the room and seeing that he was alone in there, I drank the Polyjuice potion. It tasted bad like most of the magical potions.


    After a few seconds, my body started changing. At the end of the transformation, in my place stood a silky blond haired Lucius Malfoy. What I am going to do today will make Voldemort brand him as a traitor. If everything goes smoothly, Voldemort will kill him in the graveyard after getting his body back without waiting for an explanation.


    This was my first time using the polyjuice potion and it felt wierd. I had to use a few minutes to get used to my new body so that I could battle Voldemort without any problems. Just in case I had Sherry hiding near me to help me when something goes wrong. Then I entered the DADA room without knocking. I warded the door to make sure that no one walks in on us and interrupts me.


    On entering the room, I was met with the familiar disgusting odour of the classroom. Quirrell was standing near the other end of the room. He was conversing with Voldemort but on sensing my presence stopped and turned towards me.


    Quirrell "W¡­What can I d¡­do for you L¡­Lord M¡­Malfoy?"


    (AN - It makes more sense if I write the dialogue under Malfoy)


    Lucius Malfoy "Cut the act, Quirrell. I can easily differentiate between a fake and real stutter. Yours is fake. I already know you are behind all the incidents in today''s Prophet."


    Quirrell "Alright you caught me. I am glad I don''t have to use that stutter anymore. It was quite an hassle acting like a timid person for the whole year. What are you going to do now? Why haven''t you called in the Aurors?"


    Lucius "I wanted to torture you for nearly harming my son yesterday. From the first letter home by Draco at the start of the year, I knew you were upto something. And after Draco mentioned the dangerous third floor corridor I knew that whatever was stored there was your aim.


    I decided to not do anything because I hoped that you would cause some incidents at Hogwarts and get Dumbledore fired. Even then I did not want you to have a quiet year. Since my son would be in danger, I decided to make your year a hell using pranks.


    Yes that''s right. All the pranks on you throughout the year were done per my instructions. And all of them on the turban. I know that the real culprit is hiding behind that ridiculous turban. The drastic change in your behaviour after your holiday trip led me to believe you are posesed by a spirit and are taking orders from it."


    A gruff voice spoke from behind Quirrell "Let me face that traitor."


    Quirrell "But master you are still weak."


    Lucius "Yes. Let me fave the real culprit. I decided to leave you alone after making sure that Draco will not be in much danger. All I did to you was get you pranked. I thought you will be bored staying in behind his head all the time and would appreciate some entertainment. But last night you nearly killed my son. Due to you endangering my son, I could not let you stay at Hogwarts anymore. You had to go and to make sure that your mission fails, I sent an anonymous letter to the prophet."


    Voldemort " YOU ARE BEHIND ALL MY TORMENT THIS YEAR. LET ME FACE THE TRAITOR NOW, QUIRRELL."


    Quirrell timidly compiled and removed the turban slowly. After the turban was removed, he turned around. A white face with red eyes was glaring at me from behind Quirrell''s head.


    Lucius "Dark Lord. So what you said was true. You cannot die. I was hoping you were dead."


    Voldemort "I am immortal Lucius. What do you mean you were hoping I had died. KNEEL BEFORE ME YOUR MASTER."


    Lucius "I won''t do that anymore. I left that life behind 11 years ago. I like the life I have now."


    Voldemort "BETRAYING ME MEANS DEATH LUCIUS. YOU HAVE SEEN WHAT HAPPENS TO TRAITORS. DO YOU WANT THAT TO HAPPEN TO YOU.. I will forgive you for all the difficulties that you have made me face this year if you help me regain my body."


    Lucius "I won''t serve you anymore, mudblood"


    Voldemort "WHAT."


    Lucius "Yes. I know your true heritage now. After your death, I decided to investigate your origins. I felt Voldemort was a childish name and knew that it was not your real name. I hired investigators to find your true identity and they succeed in finding it in a few months. Tom Marvolo Riddle son of a muggle and a squib of the Gaunt line. You must have found it funny. Making purebloods kissing the robes of a mudblood."


    Voldemort "HOW DARE YOU CALL ME THAT NAME LUCIUS. I WILL KILL YOU. AVADA KADAVRA."


    I dodge the green spell easily and taunted him.


    Lucius "Is that all you got, Tom. In that body you are weak as a mudblood you are. No rituals helping you become stronger than you superior purebloods."


    He was infuriated and I used his anger to my advantage. After dodging a few more AKs, I cast a chain of spells at him.


    He was not expecting it and he found it very difficult to move away to dodge the spells. In an instant, he was wandless, tied up and petrified.


    Lucius "That feels so good. I have wanted to do that for a long time. I want to torture you but I don''t want your death to be connected to me. Count yourself lucky."


    Voldemort "ENJOY THE SMILE WHILE IT LASTS. YOU CANNOT KILL ME TODAY. I WILL BE BACK. WHEN I REGAIN MY BODY I WILL HAVE FUN TORTURING YOU UNTILL YOU BECOME INSANE. ONLY AFTER THAT WILL I KILL YOU."


    Lucius "I will do everything I can to prevent that. You will be in the spirit form for a long time until you finally fade away. Even if you are able to get your body back, I will be prepared to kill you permanently. Goodbye Tom."


    With that I cast the exorcism spell on him. The spell connrcted withh Voldemort''s face and the face started to glow.


    Voldemort screamed in pain and his spirit was forcefully ejected from Quirrell''s body. The spirit was creepy looking. All I could see clearly was the face which was the same as the face he had on the back of Quirrell''s head.


    The spirit glared at me for some time while I smiled back at it. I put up an shield surrounding me to make sure it does not try anything. After some tries attacking the shield, the spirit gave up and flew away through the walls.


    I sighed in relief and started removing signs of battle from the room. Voldemort''s spells had damaged the room and I jad to repair it. It took some time and after I was sure nothing will lead back to me, I wore the invisibility cloak and left the room.


    Soon I was back in my own perfect body back in my room in the Ravenclaw tower. Moving around as Lucius Malfoy was weird and uncomfortable. If only I had the Black family gift I could change into any person that I want without feeling uncomfortable.


    The way back was uneventful. I guess the Aurors will be more focused on clearing the obstacles in the third floor corridor. And thankfully no one had noticed my absense. I quickly incinerated the clothes I wore as Lucius Malfoy. I will not be needing them again.


    Lucius Malfoy is now living on borrowed time. I hope he enjoys the time he has left in this world. He will never know the reason for his death. I am sure Voldemort''s first act after calling his followers in the graveyard after his revival will be killing Lucius. Voldemort will cripple himself after his revival after by killing his most resourceful death eater. Manipulating Voldemort was fun.

 Chapter 60 - Prophet Strikes Again

    The next two days we were confined to the Ravenclaw tower while the Aurors finished their search and investigation. No updates were given to us about the situation which disappointed many curious Ravenclaws. Everyone was bored and restless since we had nothing to do. No access to the Library for three days means unhappy Ravenclaws.


    Only on the third day were we allowed to leave the Ravenclaw tower. We were allowed to head to the Great Hall for breakfast. We were told that the investigation was over and more information will be given to us by the Headmaster after breakfast. We were also told that the Aurors had already left the castle.


    I was not idle during these two days. I could ask Sherry to fetch me any book that I wanted so there was no problem there. I was also planning my future actions to make Dumbledore''s life more difficult. I waited two days hoping that the things about the third floor corridor makes the news thus ruining Dumbledore''s infallible image among the people but was disappointed. Nothing was printed on anything related to Hogwarts these two days. Thus, I was forced to act.


    I decided to send a letter to Rita Skeeter again. I was sure she will not disappoint me this time too. I sent the letter last night so I am hoping the article makes today''s news.


    In the great hall, I saw that Dumbledore was not in a good mood. Explaining not noticing a possessed professor who had been in the castle for the whole year to angry Aurors and Unspeakables must have been very difficult. The powerful wizard image he was so proud of should have taken a huge hit due to this. I am sure will be in a worse mood when he finds out that the stone he recovered from the mirror was a fake. I bet he throws a tantrum inside his office. Unfortunately I had no way to record it.


    I don''t know what they did with Fluffy. Since Hagrid was not a Professor and probably never will be, he was not sitting in the Great Hall with the Professors so I cannot judge the outcome from his reaction. I think the Aurors will have a very hard time trying to kill Fluffy since the unforgivables were not allowed. Their best chance would have been to strike a deal with Hagrid to get the beast out of Hogwarts.


    The breakfast was a quiet and quick affair since everyone was restless to know what had transpired inside the castle the last few days. Everyone had eaten quickly and were looking towards the professors table in anticipation.


    After breakfast, Dumbledore stood up from his chair and spoke "May I have your attention everyone. I am happy to inform you all that the danger has been eliminated from Hogwarts making it safe again. The person responsible for the recent attacks on students was apprehended by the Aurors yesterday. Unfortunately, during the process of apprehending the culprit, Professor Quirrell was hurt and had to be taken to St. Mungo''s for treatment. The diagnosis is that he will need a few months to recover and be fit to resume his normal lifestyle. Unfortunately, this also means that he will not be returning to Hogwarts to continue teaching DADA. Don''t worry, your studies will not be affected since I will be taking over his classes to teach you Defence.


    I cannot tell you anything about the culprit''s identity or why he was here due to the ongoing Auror investigation. Coming to your class schedule, the morning classes are suspended but normal schedule of classes will resume from noon onwards."


    There was a lot of cheering around the hall for different reasons. Most were happy that Hogwarts was safe again while some were happy that they will not have to sit in Quirrell''s dreadful class again. It looked like no one was sad about Quirrell leaving.


    I was glad I wrote that letter to Rita yesterday. Now when everyone reads the true events in the paper, they will lose more respect for Dumbledore due to the lies he had just spoken. Due to this I was eagerly waiting for the morning post. I liked making Dumbledore mad. His twinkling eyes were irritating.


    Just then I heard the flapping of wings and saw the owls entering the hall with the post. There were a lot of owls since the post was blocked for the last two days due to the investigation.


    I quickly snatched today''s paper from the post and started searching for the article. The article I was looking for was on the front page.


    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    CRISIS AVERTED AT HOGWARTS DUE TO SWIFT ACTION BY THE MINISTRY


    - by Rita Skeeter


    Some of you may already know that after some of my alarming revelations in this paper a few days back about the things happening at Hogwarts, the Ministry decided to act to ensure the safety of the children. The minister personally went to Hogwarts with Aurors to catch the person responsible.


    Yesterday night the Aurors concluded their investigation at Hogwarts. My sources say that the culprit escaped the castle when he saw that he would be caught by the Aurors if he did not escape fast. The culprit escaped on the night the investigation by the Aurors began. It looks like the culprit was far more afraid of our Ministry than Headmaster Dumbledore. He stayed at Hogwarts during Dumbledore''s investigation over many months but when he learned that the Ministry was involving itself, he ran for his life.


    What alarmed me was the identity of the culprit. My sources have confirmed that the culprit was a spirit of an old Dark Wizard. The Dark Wizard had lost his body and was looking for a way to regain his body. The spirit had possessed a professor and infiltrated Hogwarts so that he could acquire a magical artefact that would help him regain his body back.


    The artefact was being safeguarded by Dumbledore inside Hogwarts in an unused part of the castle. I learned that the owners of the artefact were looking for a place to hide the artefact when they learned that some Dark Wizard was after it. Headmaster Dumbledore volunteered to help them safeguard the artefact and in his infinite wisdom decided to store the artefact inside Hogwarts despite knowing that the students would be put in a lot of danger due to his decision. I am disappointed that the other professors at Hogwarts did not object to his decision. I thought atleast they cared for the children.


    The artefact is rumoured to be the philosopher''s stone which is famous for producing the Elixir of life. My source told me that it was housed in an unused part of the castle behind a series of dangerous traps involving lethal poisons and even a Cerberus. The first trap was the Cerberus and it was housed behind a door which was locked by a simple locking charm that could have been unlocked by a first year spell. The disturbing thing is that Headmaster Dumbledore pointed out the location of the lethal traps to the children during the opening feast of the year. I don''t know what he was hoping would happen by informing the children this. Many children could have taken this as a challenge and gone there to confirm the warning provided by the Headmaster. This could have led to many children dying tragically. Thankfully there are no reports of dead children which means that the children were not foolish enough to seek danger.


    The Dark Wizard was after the stone and only when the Aurors started removing the dangerous traps and the stone did the dark wizard flee. It was confirmed that he was behind all the attacks on Harry Potter. The person he was possessing passed away due to the after effects of long term possession. The professor is rumoured to be the DADA professor, Quirinus Quirrell.


    Headmaster Dumbledore put the children in danger foolishly when he could have easily protected the stone by a Fidelius charm with him as the secret keeper. He put the children in danger when it was unnecessary. He also did not notice that one of his professors had a Dark Wizard on the back of his head for an whole year. I think age has finally caught up to him making him senile and it is high time he is removed from Hogwarts for the safety of the children and I hope someone takes needed actions to ensure that.


    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    I looked up from the paper and saw that most of the children were still reading the paper. Turning towards the Professor''s table, I saw that all Professors were pale with fear. They will be getting a lot of Howlers from angry parents.


    Dumbledore had lost all the twinkle in his eyes. He was angry. Suddenly he stood up and stormed out of the Hall. I was disappointed since I was hoping he will show his anger in front of the children. McGonagall and Snape followed him in a hurry.


    I was satisfied with this reaction. After seeing the professors leave, the students also started leaving the hall while discussing the article. I also made my way towards the Ravenclaw Tower.


    Finally, my plans for this year were over. There was nothing else for me to do this year. Only thing left was watching the aftermath of my actions over these past few days.

 Chapter 61 - Reactions

    The following week after the revelations was busy one for Hogwarts and the magical world.


    At Hogwarts, every day the great hall was bombarded with loud howlers from enraged parents to the professors for putting their children at risk when it was totally unnecessary. The professors mainly Dumbledore and McGonagall spent most of their time in the great hall burning these howlers.


    The huge number of complaints from parents forced the governors of Hogwarts to act and they decided to agree to the punishments recommended by Madam Longbottom and Lord Malfoy.


    Professor McGonagall had to step down from the Head of Gryffindor post and Professor Babbling, the Ancient Runes professor was given the role. McGonagall was also warned to make sure that she did her job properly from now onwards or else she will be fired from the Deputy Headmistress post. She was also told that she would also lose the chance to become the Headmistress of Hogwarts if anymore complaints against her were brought to the board.


    Hagrid was distraught when he learned that the governors decided to ban him from ever taking up a professor post at Hogwarts. I thought that it was a fair decision since Hagrid was never suited for the post. In the canon the substitute COMC professor was far better than him. He should just leave Hogwarts and join the Dragon reserve Charlie works at. He would love that job. Currently his job at Hogwarts was to act as an errand boy for Dumbledore.


    I learned that Hagrid helped in removing Fluffy from the castle when the Ministry promised him that they will take him to a magical beast reserve and not kill it. This was good since the loss of Fluffy along with the other things would have destroyed his spirit.


    Due to there being a lot of Dumbledore supporters in the Hogwarts board of governors, Dumbledore was not punished by them. To appease the parents of the students they decided to give Dumbledore a warning and told him that if anything dangerous happens at Hogwarts again due to him neglecting his duties, he will be removed from the castle.


    The Wizengamont also had a lot of Dumbledore sympathizers and people owing Dumbledore favours so he was not punished there too. They also gave him a similar warning and told him the next time they will be forced to act and his past reputation will not give him any favour when that happens.


    The international community was the only one to act to punish Dumbledore. When the revelations in the Prophet spread to other parts of the world, the international magical community was horrified. They knew the true value of the philosopher stone and how many dark wizards had the d?s?r? to own one to prolong their lives. They clearly knew the amount of danger Dumbledore had put the children at Hogwarts in by housing the stone there. Add to the fact that Dumbledore was not seen as a great person or a Merlin reincarnate outside Britain, they had no problem in criticising him for his actions.


    The many Dumbledore haters in the ICW used this opportunity to call an emergency ICW meeting and in that meeting Dumbledore was removed from the ICW governing body with an overwhelming majority of the members agreeing to the decision. The French representative to the ICW replaced Dumbledore as the new Supreme Mugwump.


    In the end Dumbledore got away with losing only the international reputation which I don''t think mattered to him too much. His attention was always focussed on Britain and he did not care what happened elsewhere. So in a way he gained extra free time from the punishment that he could use productively and to regain his lost reputation.


    Dumbledore''s first action after the busy week of meetings was apologising to the students for putting them in danger which he did in the great hall before the entire student body. He said that he must not have been in the right mind and did not think clearly while agreeing to help the Flamels in their time of need. He thought that the stone being with him would have deterred all dark wizards from going after it and hence no student would have been put in danger. He apologised and told that he had learned his lesson and will make sure that it does not happen again and Hogwarts remains a safe haven of learning.


    Most of the students bought his act and the undecided students were forced to think that way due to the efforts of many Dumbledore''s vocal supporters in different houses. The incident was also heavily publicised in the papers and people decided to forgive him since it was a foolish mistake that everyone makes once in a while. They thought that Dumbledore deserved a second chance.


    The stunt by Dumbledore worked and the numbers of daily howlers drastically decreased until there were none bringing Hogwarts back to its normal routine.


    While all this was going on, I decided not to act and just focus on my studies. All I wanted to do was create some doubt in everyone''s heart and not ruin Dumbledore''s image completely. I had a lot of material which I could release to the world that would make him want to commit suicide. But doing that would drastically alter the timeline which I did not want.


    My plan was to alter things slowly and ruining reputations until both Dumbledore and Voldemort had only their devoted followers left with them. Even after all my revelations if both of them still had followers then those followers were unredeemable and needed to die as well for the betterment of magical Britain. This would make sure that I can end this war with the very little amount of bloodshed. I will let those two sides fight among themselves while everyone else was protected.


    I will force people to think on their own and slowly remove their sheep mentality. This was something that must be done before actions could be taken to bring in new ideas and bring the magical community into the 21st century.


    So for now I will let him manipulate things while secretly ruining his plans. This way moew safe and more fun.

 Chapter 62 - Year End

    The last few weeks of the year passed without any incident. Everything at Hogwarts was back to normal.


    Gryffindor house seemed much happier with Professor Babbling as the Head of the House. In a few days she had stopped the unjust point deductions and detentions ?ssigned by Snape to them. She was furious when many students came to her to complain about that. She immediately went to the Headmaster with the issue and Dumbledore had to order Snape to control his tendencies despite him not being happy about it. With the current poor reputation of Hogwarts if this issue also reached the Prophet then Dumbledore would have no option other than fire Snape to appease the people.


    Snape sneered and grumbled in his classes after that. Since his favourite source of enjoyment was taken away from him, he became more horrible in classes. McGonagall was depression when she saw Gryffindors losing respect for her when they saw how easily Professor Babbling helped them with their problem. She knew that she was wrong and decided to do her job properly from now on since she did not want to be hated by her students.


    Despite the improvement in the points of other Houses due to this, Slytherin still won the House Cup since the improvement was made near the end of the year.


    Due to the removal of the obstacle course in the third floor corridor, Dumbledore had no way to award points to Harry and his friends to make Gryffindor win the House Cup. I could see it on his face during the end of the year feast that he wanted Gryffindor to win.


    Dumbledore was disappointed that he was not able to gain Harry''s admiration by giving him and Gryffindor points. He had met him only once during this year which was not enough to make Harry see him as a grandfather figure which he wanted to be seen as. With him being busy with other things these last few weeks, he was not able to chat with Harry about things like the Voldemort which he planned on doing after Harry''s confrontation with Voldemort. That would have brought him closer to Harry.


    Coming to Harry, it seems like it was not possible for any improvement in his behaviour. His life at Dursleys had made him desperate for attention. So even though he does not like some of the habits of his two friends, he has not ditched them for new friends. He did not know that he was alienating himself from other children by doing this. The bossy attitude of Hermione and the whinny attitude of Ron made others stay away from them and since Harry was always with them, they stayed away from him too.


    He clearly needed a lot of mental counseling. Due to my nutritional potions he has grown fast this year which meant that his robes had become short for him. Since he had bought only the basic robes without any charms they were not self-sizing. Despite this happening, Harry had not done anything to correct that. So he has spent the whole year wearing tight robes. He is scared to ask help from others due to his life with Dursleys.


    There is no way I can correct his behaviour without some serious counselling which would take up a lot of time. So it was all upto him now. He needs to correct his behaviour fast if he wants my help in the future. I was happy that he continued to practice Occlumency despite all this while keeping it a secret from his friends. Maybe there was hope left for him after all.


    The New marauders did make an appearance in the end of the year feast but there was no monologue or anything since there was nothing I wanted to say to everyone. They just set of a colourful display of fireworks and vanished quietly during the display.


    Coming to my achievements of the year. This year was the most fruitful year of Hogwarts life. I was truly sad about Voldemort going away since I lost my unique educational YouTube channel with him. I learnt a lot from him.


    My gains due to Tom Riddle''s memory was enormous. I could now say that I am a Master Legilimens. I could even go around the protections of the Heir rings and read the minds of the Heirs without them detecting my presence. Riddle had already found the way and I just had to practice using it. It was impossible to read minds of people with Lord rings without them detecting my intrusion. Riddle had experimented a lot in that area and concluded it was impossible due to a m?tur? magical core powering up the ring which increased the power of the ring by many times.


    I compensated for my lack of duelling experience by watching his duels through his eyes and learning from his mistakes. This was not the best way to become a good dueller but this was all I could do now to help me in the field.


    I had learned silent and instantaneous Apparition from Riddle''s memory. After practise I could use it effortlessly even during battle and use it to get an upper hand. Flying without a broom needed more magic reserves so I stored the knowledge away for later. I also learnt port-key making from his memories.


    The rituals he had knowledge of were all of Dark type and were not useful for me but I did start my research on the Dark Arts subject with the help of his memories. It was not too helpful since Riddle concentrated more on the evil side of dark magic and the quick ways to power him up which I did not need.


    My hunt in the forbidden forest had gained me a lot of harvest. I hunted almost a third of the total Acromantula population in the Forest. It was quite easy to find the small groups using mage sight while flying above the forests in my Falcon form. Mage sight also helped me detect the presence of Voldemort and the Centaurs while hunting and escape when needed.


    Surprisingly my hunt did not cause the nest to react in any way which was confusing and I did not find any information to explain this. I was happy since this made the hunt easier for me but this also made me act more carefully while making sure that no one could trace the hunt back to me.


    I even saved a couple of Unicorns from dying and gained me some drops of willingly given Unicorn blood and Unicorn tail hairs. They would be very useful for potions. I could not save all of them due to the danger of being found but I comforted myself by saying that I at least saved some of them when they were destined to die.


    My Acromantula farm in the Black island now had 20 healthy Acromantula. It was quite easy to transfer them with the help of my five house elves. I would subdue the Acromantula and they would transfer them to the enclosure. 20 was enough for my enclosure since these 20 will reproduce quickly to create a big nest in my enclosure. Any more and the big island will quickly become too small for the nest.


    The harvest from the hunt were sold by Sherry and others in various stores around Britain and France. I made nearly 200,000G from the hunt due to the high demand. It was a lot of money and was stored in my vault in the Black castle. Since the Gringotts vault was like a storage vault without any benefits, I did not plan on keeping a lot of money in there. Just enough to show my status as a rich Lord.


    First thing I decided was what to do about the money I have in my home. After thinking about it a lot I finally decided to use this for investment too. I had Sherry exchange the money to pounds in batches so as to cause any trouble from many different branches of Gringotts around Europe. Now I had 1 million pounds to continue my investment. I bought more shares of the companies that I already had shares of. I knew the price would increase by 100 times in the future so this investment would become 100 million in about 25 years.


    I also completed some of my shopping for the next year. The letter with the list of things would come only after a moth so I could not finish the whole shopping but the other things could be bought by Sherry and did not need me visiting Diagon Alley.


    After finishing everything that needed to be done I was reading to leave Britain for my trip.

 Chapter 63 - Holiday Destination

    My destination for this year''s holiday trip was India. There were two important reasons for my decision to go there.


    The main reason was the opening of chamber of secrets next year which meant that I have the opportunity to kill a basilisk and harvest its parts. Before killing the basilisk, I want to know if there was an ancient ritual that I could perform using the basilisk or its carcass to become a parsel mouth. The best place to find a magical ritual for this will be India since it is a country where parselmouths are revered for their ability to control the large population of snakes living in it.


    I would very much like to become a parsel mouth since it is rumoured that healing spells performed in parseltongue are much more effective than when performed normally. Also having the ability to speak a rare language is always appreciated. I had a suspicion that in the ritual used to become a parsel mouth, a basilisk or similarly powerful magical snake is involved and I don''t want to regret missing this chance if I find in the future that a ritual did exist and it indeed require a basilisk to perform the ritual..


    I was absolutely certain that Malfoy was going to let the chamber incident happen despite my meddling in the timeline. In fact, Dumbledore''s current situation would greatly encourage Lucius Malfoy to do it. Dumbledore''s running of Hogwarts was already being inspected by the governors and with another dangerous event happening at Hogwarts, Malfoy will have an easier time removing firing him from the Headmaster post.


    The second important reason for my decision to go to India was to find more information about the world in the Harry Potter universe.


    The canon only tells about the situation of British magical world and some parts of the French magical world. If you take into consideration the other series by the same author, then you could get some idea of the American magical world. The magical communities of the other parts of the world are unknown.


    I did try to understand the state of the world after getting reborn in this world but information available to me was lacking. There is nothing in the library about the situation of magical communities outside Europe and since the Room of Requirement can only fetch me the books available inside the castle I was out of luck there too.


    The Falken library also did not provide much information. Asking Hogwarts students from other countries was also a failure since they too did not know much. The only place that gave a vague idea about the world is the Black library and that too about the Asian ones. It was in the Black Grimoire to warn descendants to not cause trouble in these countries since they were stronger.


    The information I have compiled from my several sources are as follows.


    First, the International Confederation of Wizards (ICW) is similar to United Nations in the muggle world but not all countries are part of it. The ICW consists mainly of European countries, Russia and countries with indirect connection with the European countries.


    The countries with indirect connection with the European countries are the countries where witches and wizards from the European countries have migrated to for different reasons and set up their own government to govern themselves. The local magical people of most of these governments did not like to be under the rule of others and did not join the government and stayed far away from them. The migrants did not force the issue since the indigenous wizards were stronger than them.


    Examples of this system are The Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA) and the Magical Australian Ministry. Many European magicals migrated to these countries to escape the numerous magical wars happening in their countries. They set up governments similar to the European magical governments to keep the migrants in check. The local tribes allowed them to set up these governments with the condition that the tribal people will not be forced to follow the laws set up by them. The tribes liked to live in their own small world and did not like others interfering in their lives. So not much is known about the magical lives of these communities.


    The magical counterparts of powerful and highly populated countries like India and China are vastly different from their muggle counterparts. In fact, there is no united India or China in the magical side of the world. The Magical counterparts of the smaller countries near India and China also do not exist since these countries were created due to wars in the muggle world and the wars did not affect the magical world.


    The magical Indian subcontinent consists of many magical tribes that live isolated lives away from rest of the world. I learned from the Indian origin students studying in Hogwarts that in India when muggle borns are found, they are given the option of either going to other countries for their magical studies or get their magic bound. Another option is getting adopted by the tribes and joining them but that choice is given only when the tribes feel that the muggle born has the potential to become a strong wizard in the future. So the muggle borns and their descendants have to look for magical schools outside India for their studies. I learned only these small things about that world.


    Also these tribes only rule over small areas of land surrounding their settlement and the whole of India is not split between themselves to rule. Trading between the tribes does exist but it is not known who keeps these tribes under check and make sure that war between tribes do not happen.


    Similarly, China is made up of many small independent magical communities called sects. But unlike the Indian tribes, the Chinese sects allow other magical people to join them and learn and work under it. The muggle borns are encouraged to join these sects.


    In China the sects have large areas surrounding their sect that they rule and there is a small council made up of the sect leaders of these sects that take decisions on topic relating to outside sect matters.


    These two countries are believed to have very powerful wizards and due to this no dark wizard as dared to create conflict involving these countries.


    The advantage India and China had over other countries is that on these countries there were no witch hunts in fact the few accidental sightings of magic was viewed very differently there. Since they did not have to face witch hunts they could concentrate more on improving themselves.


    In India the sighting were misinterpreted as signs from gods and some of the magicals in the olden times were worshipped as messengers of gods since they performed miracles. In some cases when magic was seen by normal people, they were informed that it was a result of long hours of meditation.


    In China the people were made to believe that the acts of magic were a product of reaching a high level in martial arts. Accidental magic performed by children was misinterpreted as the child having high talent for martial arts.


    There must have been problems in those countries too since they too were human but there was nothing about that in the information that I had gathered.


    One of my Black Ancestors had gone to these two countries and tried to take advantage of the people. He failed and when he tried to force them he was easily beaten to near death condition. This Ancestor this wrote some details about these two countries to warn his descendants from ever repeating his mistake.


    So my plan now was to go to India and try to earn the favour of one of their tribes and learn more about magic from them. I could only hope that some tribe accepts me or else this whole trip will be wasted.

 Chapter 64 - Searching for Information

    I decided to go to India by Flight. It was the best out of all my options. Flying to India in falcon form was too tiresome and I could not go there by portkey since India did not have designated coordinates for safe and hidden portkey travel. I could not put my own coordinates since it was quite possible that I will magically appear in front of a crowded market and risk breaking the Statue of Secrecy.


    So after a long flight I reached New Delhi, the capital of mundane India. The first thing I noticed after getting off the flight was the weather. It was too hot and humid. I had to apply cooling charms on myself just so I could walk out in the sun. The higher population density and crowd was not as troublesome.


    My purpose in coming here was to learn magic from the tribes but there was a big obstacle that was stopping me from doing that. That is, I did not know the location of any magical tribe. I could find the location by flying around in my animagus form but that would not help me since even if I knew the location I would not be welcome inside their tribe. They will see me as a threat and try to kill me since the location of tribes are supposed to be a secret. My ancestors warned that the only way to safely enter a tribe is to get an invitation from someone belonging to the tribe.


    For now, my plan is to roam around the capital city and hope I meet someone magical accidently and that someone can help me solve this problem. I liked this plan very much since it allowed me to have fun and experience the various cultures and cuisines of India.


    I had become quite fed up of eating the same food daily. First it was the orphanage meals and then Hogwarts meals. Even my house elves only knew to make the same food as the food served at Hogwarts. Only during the holidays did I have a chance to try something new. Like last year, most of my time was spent trying out the French delicacies. That reminds me after returning to London, I need to ask Liz to go to France and learn to cook from the French elves.


    Now, since Delhi was the capital of India, it had restaurants selling delicacies from all over India. Due to this as soon as I started roaming around the city, my main objective changed from looking for a wizard to trying out as many types of dishes that I can. The spicy food was easy to eat with the help of the sweet desserts available. If there are elves in India, I will do anything to own an elf that can make these desserts.


    One thing I was very happy about was there was no language problem. English was one of the official languages used in mundane India and almost everyone knew to speak and understand English. I don''t think it will be the same in the magical world but I was already prepared for this due to spending the last few weeks learning Hindi which I was hoping is the language used by magical India. I was not fluent but it was enough for me to have a conversation in the language.


    Coming to the search for a magical, it was not going well. It seemed like Delhi was not an important city in the magical world. I had my mage sight turned on all the time but I did not find any wizard or witch walking around the city. It was expected since this was the case in London too since magicals rarely visited the mundane side but what was not expected was the lack of any magical buildings which meant that Delhi did not have any relevance to the magical people.


    After searching for three days, just as I was about to give up and travel to another major city to continue my search, I found a shop that was protected by wards in a remote place in Old Delhi, far away from the capital. The shop was named Patil''s Garden Centre. By looking at the name, I knew that the shop was run by the Patil family. The Patil family was well known in Britain and their main business was selling potion ingredients all around the world.


    The shop was a small and ordinary one and did not stand out in the street. The inside of the shop was also ordinary and was similar to a garden back home just that this one was more crowded and not neat.


    I was welcomed by a middle aged man on entering the shop "Good Evening. Welcome to Patil''s Garden Centre. What are you looking for?"


    I checked the middle aged man and found out that he was a wizard which was good thing for me. He will be able to answer some of my questions. I looked around and on finding no one else inside the shop


    I said "Good Evening. My name is Charles. Can you spare some of your time to answer some of my questions? This is my first time in this country and I find many things confusing."


    The shopkeeper thought for some time and answered "I am free till the next customer walks through that door so I will be happy to answer some of your questions. What do you want to know? I am Sanjay Patil by the way."


    I smiled at his answer and said, "Thank you Mr. Patil. What is your relation to the Patil twins studying at Hogwarts? This question is to confirm my suspicion and to make sure that I can ask more questions."


    Sanjay looked at me, smiled and replied, "We are distantly related but I did see them during family meetings. I understood. So you are a wizard and I am guessing you want to know about the magical side of India?"


    I replied "Yes. I came here to find more about the magical world that is not part of the ICW. All the ICW countries are similar so I don''t find them interesting but countries like India and China intrigue me a lot and more fun to explore."


    Sanjay "Well I don''t know much despite me living here but I can tell you what all I know."


    Then he started talking about the magical counterpart of India. The information provided by him matched what I already had. He said that magical India was made up of numerous tribes but he did not know the correct number of how many. They like to stay away from the rest of the civilisation. The Patil family ancestors took advantage of this by trading things between the various tribes. The tribes provide exotic herbs and other things in return for items like daily necessities.


    When I asked him if there was any way I could be allowed inside a tribe''s settlement he answered


    "What you are asking is very difficult to achieve. The only way to enter a tribe is if one of the elders of the tribe gives you permission. I have lived here all my life but I still have not been allowed inside a tribe''s settlement. The closest I have been to is the hidden entrance of a tribe and that''s all. Why do you want to visit a tribe so badly?"


    I replied "To gain knowledge. I want to know if magic used by European countries and the other countries is same and if they are different then how. I also want to learn healing from the tribes as I have heard many good things about Indian healers."


    He thought for a while and then said "I am sorry to disappoint you but from what I know about the tribes, they will not allow a foreigner to learn their secrets. Still all hope is not lost. There is a place where you can go and try your luck. I am sure you have wondered how despite there being so many tribes in India, they are not fighting amongst each other for territory and other things. Well that is because there exists a governing body of sorts that monitors them and solves the disputes. It''s really a place of learning but since the strongest wizards in the region reside there, people ask their help in resolving conflicts. It''s a place where many talented people from the tribes go to advance themselves. They are also the ones who make sure that the statue of secrecy is not broken and have taken measures to ensure that. I don''t know the name of the place or the exact location. All I know is that it is located in the Himalayas in modern day Nepal and I heard that the people who want to enter have to pass a test otherwise they are kicked out. I don''t know if Foreigners are allowed in too but it your best bet in helping you gain the knowledge that you want."


    I thanked him for the information and then we moved on to talk about our lives and other things. Sanjay did not go to Hogwarts. He was an alumnus of Beauxbatons in France. Due to the war that was happening in Europe during his student days he decided to leave Europe and take care of the family business in his home country.


    He told me that this shop was opened just for conducting business with foreigners like me and the city of Delhi did not matter much in the magical world. The major Patil family stores were in cities near the location of major tribes and tribes asked the Patil family to not conduct business with foreigners in those shops to make sure that they were not disturbed by the foreigners trying to earn their favour.


    We then moved the conversation to the sights that I had to see in the country and the dishes that I had to try before leaving India. This conversation continued for a long time until a customer entered the shop and we had to stop. I promised him that I will come again in the future and left the store. I had already taken too much of his time and he had work to do.


    Now I had to plan my trip to the Himalayas and hope that I will be allowed to enter inside and learn.

 Chapter 65 - Journey

    After leaving the shop, I spent the rest of the day following the advice of Sanjay on what to do in Delhi. At the end of the day I was exhausted since I rushed to complete everything that Sanjay had suggested I had to try in Delhi. This may be the last day of my short fun filled vacation since tomorrow I was leaving to search for the academy that oversaw magical India. I am going to refer the place as an academy till I know what the place is called.


    Early next morning, after checking out of my hotel, I did not leave the hotel building. Instead I disillusioned myself and made my way towards the Hotel''s terrace. I was planning to go to the Himalayas in my falcon form since it was close to Delhi and also the most scenic route. So when I reached the terrace, I transformed and began my journey to the Himalayas.


    I did not use the direct route but instead decided to go via the Uttarakhand state of India and from there cross the Indian border to Nepal. This would allow me to cover more parts of the mountain range. The diversion was worth it since the natural beauty that I could see from the sky was mind blowing. Beautiful green valleys covered with flowers on one side and the snow covered Himalayan mountains reaching towards the sky on the other side. There were no words that could describe the beauty that was below me. Far away from the crowded cities, the calm beautiful valleys were a sight to behold.


    I flew around the green mountains for some time in my falcon form just for fun before flying towards the snow covered mountains of the Himalayas. Since it was summer now, the mountains were not completely covered in snow so not everything in front of me was white but the natural beauty was still there. Magically this was a good place to train. The ambient magic concentration in the Himalayas was very high and was almost on the same level as that of Hogwarts. If I had to guess, then I think there are 2 ley lines below me making the magic concentration high. Now it was time to begin my search so I activated my mage sight and started flying along the mountain range.


    I flew around searching for signs of wards. My mage sight was not strong enough to see the ley lines or it would have been very easy for me to find my goal just by following a ley line. I did not know if I was still in India or I had crossed into Nepal or Tibet but it did not matter to me since in the Indian magical world there were no such borders. I was flying fast and covering large distances very quickly since all I had to do was search for a warded academy and nothing else.


    Due to the high speeds at which I was flying, I found the warded academy very quickly. Only six hours ago had I started my search. The fact that ambient magic concentration continued to increase as I came closer to the academy acted like a GPS and made it easy to find. The academy had very high magical concentration. I estimated that there were at least 4 ley lines intersected under this place.


    The academy had some pretty strong wards such that even with my mastery level knowledge I could not identify some of the wards. Preliminary analysis told me that the wards were as strong as or stronger than the original Hogwarts wards mainly due to the higher number of ley lines powering it.


    From the sky I could see that the academy covered a very large area. It was not a flat landscape and instead consisted of many mountain peaks with small areas of flat land where buildings could be seen. The academy wards were annoying since it had some kind of ward that stopped my mage sight powers from looking inside the wards. It limited my sight. There was no problem with normal sight but on activating mage sight, I could not see what was under the wards and all I could see was a dome of magic covering the land.


    My falcon sight allowed me to see what was under the wards so I could still map the layout of the place in my mind. Instead of a single big castle housing everyone like in Hogwarts, the academy consisted of many small buildings spread across the mountain range. Almost all buildings were single storied and with simple design. There was only one multi-storeyed building in the academy which I think was the administrative building or something similar. There were huge walls enclosing the academy with a huge gate being the only entry point by foot.


    There were no villages close to the academy like Hogsmeade where I could stay and gather information before trying to enter. I entered Nepal illegally without VISA and hence could not go around asking information in the muggle world without using a lot of confundus charms which may make me be seen as hostile by local the wizards. I decided to try my luck without any preparation since it was my only option.


    There was some path leading to the gate of the academy which I followed and after a few minutes of flying I found that it led to a mundane village that surprisingly did not house anyone magical. The academy could not be seen from the village and the path had runes that made it hidden from the eyes of muggles and also some other runes that made them avoid the path. This should be the place from which people travelled to the academy for the first time before getting the permission to apparate inside.


    I quickly transformed back from a falcon in a secluded place near the village and started trekking on the path towards the academy. I had to keep my animagus a secret because I had not registered it yet. Even though it was not a problem here if my secret somehow reaches a foreigner''s ear I would be in a lot of trouble.


    After a half an hour walk, I reached the gate of the academy. The gate was majestic. The gate and the walls it was connected to were 40ft high and easily hid the whole academy behind them. They were made of a red stone similar to the stone used in many monuments in Delhi with patches of stones like marble and granite used for decoration.


    The gate had two large doors which opened inwards. In the centre of the large gate at the top something was written in a language that I could not understand. The letters were similar to that of Hindi but I could not read or understand it. The sides of the gate were decorated with sculptures of magical creatures some of which I have never seen or read about in my life. They were unknown to me. But the sculptures of dragon, phoenix looked so life like that I almost suspected that they were the real creatures turned to stone by a spell.


    After admiring the gate for a few more minutes, I moved towards the gate and stood directly in front of it. There was a runes sequence inscribed in front of the gate which would alert the people incharge that someone needed permission to enter the academy. Now all I had to do was wait.


    After waiting patiently for nearly 15 minutes, one of the huge doors started moving and opened a little. Through the now partially opened door, a middle aged man walked towards me. He was few inches shorter that 6 ft tall and was wearing what I ?ssumed was the traditional clothing of India. I had never seen clothes like that. He was wearing a long black shirt and something that looked like a pant.


    He smiled at me and said in Hindi " Hello my name is Aryan. I am on gate duty today. May I know the purpose of your visit."


    A/N - Till the end of India trip ?ssume all conversations are in Hindi language. The MC being a genius learned the language last year when he decided to visit India.


    I replied "My name is Charles and I am from England. I came here to get an opportunity to learn magic that is not found in Europe."


    Aryan said "You would need the permission from the elder incharge for that. I will take you to him. Follow me." and started walking towards the academy.


    I replied " Thank you." and followed him inside through the partially opened gate.

 Chapter 66 - Academy

    What waited for me behind the huge gate was a single concrete road. From my earlier scouting I knew that this was the main road that led to the main building of the academy and branches from this road led to the other parts of the academy.


    The road went through gaps between different mountains and in some places it looked like certain parts of mountains were destroyed to create a path. From the sky I could not judge the heights of the mountains properly so I did not expect the way towards the academy building to be a mountain trek. I could see the academy building from here since it was on the tallest mountain and I knew I had to climb quite a number of steps to reach it.


    I don''t know how Aryan reached the gate in such a short time to welcome me. There were anti apparition wards on the academy with only one place which I ?ssumed was the apparition spot for travellers being the only exception so he could not have apparated to the gate. With his back turned towards me I activated my mage sight so that I could judge his strength. I was under the wards so the wards did not affect my mage sight anymore.


    What I saw with my sight was odd. His magic core did not look like the magic core I am used to seeing. It did not have a definite shape like the sphere I am used to seeing inside the other wizards. I couldn''t compare his strength with others due to this but from the aura around him I could guess that he was stronger than Snape but weaker than Dumbledore.


    Before I could think about this further, Aryan turned towards me and said, "This will be where I will be leaving you. You have to make your way towards the Elders building on your own. Its located at the end of this road. I will wait for you there. This is the first obstacle everyone has to pass before they are allowed to take the test before they are accepted. You have to be there in 20 minutes or you will be kicked out."


    Then he turned around and flew into the air towards the Elders building without even asking if I had any doubts. Well that explained how he reached the gate very quickly to welcome me. It was not too surprising since I was expecting the Chinese and the Indians to know how to fly due to reading a lot of martial arts fictions in my previous life.


    I now regret not trying to learn how to fly using Voldemort''s memories since it would have made this test a piece of cake for me. I could not use my animagus so now I had to run fast to make sure that I reached the building in time.


    Deciding to leave my other thoughts for a later time, I started my trek. I planned on jogging during the whole trek since I had confidence in my stamina. The daily jogs from a young age had made me physical fit and it was time for me to test the fruits of the many years of hard work.


    So I jogged the whole way. Many ups and downs of steps later I reached the base of the mountain on the peak of which the building was situated. It took me about 9 minutes. Due to the high altitude I had some breathing problem but the jog did not make me tired at all. I did not pay any heed to the different braches towards the other parts of the academy the road had. One thing to note was that I did not see anyone else during the whole trek.


    Now standing at the base of the mountain I was ready to face what I ?ssumed was tje most difficult part of the test. In front of me were countless number of steps that led to the peak of the mountain. This was going to really test my physical fitness. The time was ticking so I started climbing the stairs.


    7 minutes of gruelling climb later I was at the peak of the mountain. On reaching the destination, I relaxed and instantly fell down on my back on the concrete road. My legs were killing me. There was no problem with my endurance since my breathing was still normal but my body was aching like crazy. I started using magic to soothe my pains. I was really thankful for magic at that moment.


    While I was healing my legs, I heard Aryan''s voice and looked up. I saw him smiling at me and walking towards me.


    Aryan "You have managed to pass the preliminary test in 16 minutes Charles. Congratulations. I was not expecting that from a European. In fact you are the first European in two centuries to pass this preliminary test. I heard that European wizards do not pay impotance to physical exercise hence the failure rate."


    He then handed me a red coloured potion in a small vial and said "Drink this potion. It will restore your stamina and heal your injuries. You will need to be in your perfect condition for the real test. I will wait till you are ready and then take you to the Elder. You can ask me questions while we wait."


    I drank the potion which looked like an improved version of the pepper-up potion and also smelt like it. Instantly I felt a soothing sensation flowing through my body healing all my muscle pains. While this was happening, I decided to ask the question that had been on my mind for the last two days.


    I asked "What is the name of this place?"


    He smirked and replied "So you were unable to make sense of the words on the gate. I did not expect you to since it was written in a language called Sanskrit. It looks like Hindi since Hindi and many other Indian languages were derived from it. The name of the place is *******. I am sure that you did not understand that since it is Sanskrit. It means the Holy centre for learning."


    I nodded and asked another question "Are there many foreigners presently inside the academy who have passed the test and have been allowed an opportunity to study here?"


    Aryan replied "Many people have come here to study from all parts of the world over the years. Mostly from Asian countries Only a few foreigners are present inside the academy right now but many of the past student do come by and visit every now and then. None of them are from Europe though. We have not had a European student in nearly 3 centuries."


    Before I could ask more questions I heard the sounds of other people talking and saw some people coming out of the building. Aryan went towards them to chat with them. They too had the weird magic cores that I had seen in Aryan but I could sense that they were weaker than him which was good since high disparity in strength between the European and Indian wizards was not good.


    I used the free time to take a good look at the Elders building. It was big, bigger than the Black castle but not as big as Hogwarts. I could not judge the number of floors from the outside due to the peculiar structure of the building which was similar to the Chinese buildings I had seen in Mangas but my guess is it has 5 floors. The walls of the building were made up of marble and hence the building was in white in colour. The white building surrounded by snowy mountains gave it a unique beauty and made it more attractive than the Taj Mahal. The building also had similar decorations that were seen on the academy gate which added some extra attraction to the beauty of the building.


    While I was admiring the beauty Aryan returned and said "It seems you are are all healed up. Lets go."


    I stood up and followed him into the building. It was time for my test.

 Chapter 67 - Test - I

    After entering the building, Aryan took me to a room which quite close to the entrance in the same floor. The inside of the Elders building was not as grand as the outside. It was quite simple and which was a good thing in my books. Aryan knocked on the door and we heard someone from inside giving permission to enter.


    Inside the room I found an old man waiting for me. He looked similar to Dumbledore with a similar beard and long rain but thankfully he did not wear those hideous clothes. Instead he was wearing clothes that were similar in design to those that Aryan wore but were completely white. His overall look and feel was the closest thing to a sage in my mind.


    Since my mage sight was active, I saw the same weird magic core on him. by now i knew that most probably everyone will have a similar magical core they must have achieved it using some means. The aura of strength he was giving out was quite close to that of what I felt from Dumbledore. My guess is that he has similar strength to that of Dumbledore without the Elder wand.


    The room itself was ordinary. It had a big table and chair for the Elder along with bookshelves were huge registers were stored. For guests there were some wooden chairs. There was a fire pit for heating the room and that was it.


    When we entered the room Aryan bowed to the elder in respect which I imitated.


    Aryan spoke first "Elder Atulya, I have bought the guest as you instructed."


    The old man stared at me for a few second before saying "What is your name child?"


    I replied in a very respectful manner "My name is Charles Daniel Falken, Elder."


    Elder Atulya said "The Falken family, hmm. You are strong for someone your age. I have great expectations from you. Now lets move to your test grounds. We will continue the conversation after you pass the test. Aryan you are welcome to watch the test."


    He then walked towards the fire pit inside the room and said "We will travel via what you call floo travel in Britain. Here we call it Fire travel. The different places are too far to walk every time so we use fire travel to move from one place to another. I am ?ssuming you know how to use the floo. The address is training ground 1. I will wait for you there."


    After walking outside, I was met with the sight of a large field surrounded on all sides by mountains. The only way out from here was to either use the floo or fly out. Other than that there was nothing special about the ground. I saw that there were some people already waiting for me inside the training ground. There were two other elders that wore clothes similar to that of Elder Atulya and also some five other people who wore similar clothes to that of Aryan''s. I ?ssumed they were the apprentices of the Elders. They were all older than me and had gone through magical maturity from the looks of it. I think I will have to duel one of those people for the test.


    When Elder Atulya saw me, he said "Welcome Charles. These are Elder Akash and Elder Nainesh and some students of theirs. They are going to judge you along with me. For the test you have to duel Rohit here who joined the academy 2 years back and survive for 10 minutes. If you are able to do that, you pass."


    Elder Akash was a bald guy with a long white beard while Elder Nainesh had long white hair with a short beard and mustache. Elder Nainesh''s eyes were twinkling at me which reminded me of Dumbledore but he did not wear glasses. They both had magical strengths similar to that of Elder Atulya. Now coming to my opponent Rohit, he was a well built guy. He looked to be about 20 years old and stood at a height of 6 feet which made him the tallest Indian in the training ground. He gave me wrestler like feeling. Magically he looked like he was weaker than me but not by much.


    I bowed in front of the elders to show respect and moved towards my position in the opposite side of the training ground. Rohit took his place on the other side. The others including Aryan who had just joined them moved towards the sidelines so has to not come between our duel.


    Rohit spoke "You are the first European wizard I have seen in my life. I wish you luck and hope you can provide a good challenge for me."


    I said "This is the first time I am duelling against someone. Hope my hard work pays off and I pass this test."


    Rohit "First Duel huh. Then I am going to finish this duel in a single hit."


    I shot back "We will see."


    I summoned my wand from the holster and became ready.


    Seeing my wand Rohit laughed and said "Wizards in Europe still use those sticks for performing spells? You guys are still in the old ages. We moved on years to other means years ago. This Duel is going to be easy."


    With my mage sight I saw that he was wearing one ring each on both of his hands which glowed in a similar way to that of my wand. This showed that he used those rings as magical foci instead of a wand which meant that he could dual cast easily. This was going to be a tough fight.


    Elder Atulya spoke from the sidelines "Lethal spells are not allowed and take care that you do not cause permanent harm to your opponent. You will begin on the count of three. Get ready. One. Two. Three." And the duel began.


    I trained my mage sight on him and waited for him to act first. I did not have to win and just had to survive for 10 minutes which meant that the Elders were not expecting a non-academy wizard like me to win. So Rohit was a tough opponent and more experienced than me. He will also not follow the European style of dueling which meant that I don''t know how he was going to fight.


    My first duel was going to be hard. So for now I am going to wait and observe how he fights before making a plan and retaliating.

 Chapter 68 - Test - II

    Rohit started to slowly moved towards me without casting any spell which was very odd. I expected him to cast from the distance like most European duellers so as to have space to dodge. This rang warning bells in my mind and made me extra attentive. I saw a lot of magic from his core moving towards two places in his body. His hands and legs. He created a fist and magic started concentrating around it. His feet also had a high concentration of magic. All this was too weird for me.


    Suddenly he launched towards me and closed in on me very quickly. He was closing on my at inhuman speeds and was infront of me in an instant. I could see that he was moving in to punch me. I quickly dodged the punch to the face and move back and tried to create space between us. But he was quicker. I saw his other hand going towards my stomach. I did not have time to dodge. Just as I was going to use my hands to block his punch to my stomach my danger sense told me that it was not a good idea. I had no time to think and reflexively acted. I transfigured my shirt into a iron armor with spikes on it.


    Rohit did not seem to notice the armour and punched me in the stomach very hard. Just before the punch hit me, I used his lack of concentration to cast a stunning and banishing spells on him.


    I did not have time to see the effects of the spell since the punch launched me into the mountain wall behind me. I hit the wall hard and fell on the ground and ?r??n?d. I did not expect such a huge force behind the punch. It was like the chakra enhanced punch used by ninjas in the Naruto anime. Using magic to power the punch and increase movement speed. I did not know something like this was possible.


    The armour took the brunt of the force but some of my ribs had cracked. The armour itself was dented and was hurting me so I quickly changed it back to my shirt. I regretted allowing him a chance to close up on me. I couldn''t move without hurting right now so I started using my free hand to heel those cracked ribs wandlessly.


    On the other side it seemed like my spells did not do much to him at all. He was a little shaken but that was it. He was standing calmly and looking down at me from his location.


    I had to find time for the healing to complete so I asked loudly "What in the Bloody hell was that? How was the punch that strong? Why didn''t my spells effect you?"


    Rohit took the bait and replied "I specialise in using magic to reinforce my physical capabilities. That punch is the result of that. I expected the match to be over in that single punch. You have good reflexes. Transfiguring your shirt into a armour that quickly. You are good. Also I am resistant to weak spells hence those spells did not do much to me."


    The last sentence was bad news for me. If he was resistant to weak spells then lots of ways I had to subdue him were out of consideration. Since he did not use a wand I also could not use Expelliarmous to win the match like Harry in the canon.


    I said "Thank Merlin I created the armour otherwise my ribs would have been destroyed and I would have died. Why did you use that much force? I thought killing was not allowed? And were those spikes on the armour effective?"


    Rohit replied "It would have not killed you. Our healers would have fixed you up in a day. And those spikes were too weak to do anything. Good try though."


    I had already healed my ribs by that time. The cracks were small otherwise I would have been forced to forfeit. I stood up and dusted myself and said "Thanks for the complement. Now its my turn to attack."


    Most of the strong spells that I knew were of lethal kind so I could not use them here too. I did not like long drawn out duels and liked to finish fights quickly hence most of my spell repertoire was of lethal kind. In this duel my options were limited and I had to improvise to survive the duel.


    I casted ''Bombarda'' on the mountain wall and a small part of it got destroyed. Giving me ammunition to attack with. I then started flinging those stones at hight speeds towards him with my free hand. While I was doing that, using my wand I transfigured those stones into swords and knives.


    Rohit was now trying hard to save himself from the dangerous projectiles. He started casting some spells in Hindi or some other language and started deflecting and destroying the projectiles. I kept it going for a few minutes until I was out of ammunition just to waste time and tire him out. He was slowly moving away from me which was good since I did not want to be a punching bag for him ever again.


    Protecting himself from the continuous rain of projectiles had frustrated Rohit. In retaliation he started sending unknown spells towards me. I could use shield charm but since the spells were unknown to me I did not know if the shield will hold or not. So I decided to both use the shield and dodge.


    I used my strongest shield charm, The Aegis charm to protect myself and note which spells were block able and which were not for future use. While holding the shield charm using wandless magic, I started returning fire using my wand.


    Hence for some duration numerous spells were exchanged between us. His strong point was in his physical strength and I was easily able to avoid his spells. After some time I noticed that he was using the exchange to get closer to me. I could not allow that to happen. I was sure that he will not allow me to use the projectiles like last time so I had to do something else. At that time I noticed that he was not shielding my spells but instead dodging them. Behind him were the projectiles he had dodged earlier. The transfiguration had been cancelled and they were rocks again. This gave me a good idea.


    Under the guise of attacking, I sent a spell that to the rocks that brought all of them together. Another spell and I transfigured the bunch of rocks into a rock tiger. Another spell and the tiger was animated and it started moving towards Rohit to attack. The noise made by the tiger was hidden by another spell so Rohit did not noticed it. He was concentrating on getting close enough to my position.


    Elder Atulya spoke "10 minutes are up. The test is over. You pass Charles. Good battle both of you."


    Rohit did not look disappointed. He said "Thank you for the thrilling fight. You are good. I did not expect you to be able to use wandless magic. I would have lost if the fight had continued."


    I replied "Thank you for being my opponent in my first Duel. It was thrilling and informative. This is the first time I have seen a wizards using magic for physical reinforcement. I nearly lost in the first attack itself. I could see that you were holding back to allow me a chance to pass. Thank you. I hope we can duel again some other time without the time limit."


    The others came and congratulated me for passing. The Elders complimented me and told me that I could come to their buildings in the academy if I wanted to learn from them. Elder Nainesh told me to meet him after the admission process was over since he wanted to speak with me about something important. It intrigued my curiosity and I agreed to meet him later.


    Elder Atulya "Lets go back to the Elders Building. We need to complete other admission formalities before you can become an official member of the academy."


    I thanked everyone and said goodbye before following Elder Atulya via the floo to the Elders Building.

 Chapter 69 - Admission

    After the floo travel, Elder Atulya and I were back in his room. This was becoming an great day will lot of good things happening at the same time.


    After we were comfortably seated in chairs, Elder Atulya asked, "Before we go through the admission process, I want to know something. How old are you?"


    I replied "I turned 15 years old a few weeks back. Why? Is me being an underage wizard going to be a problem?"


    Elder Atulya "It seems Elder Nainesh was right. He informed me during your test that you had not undergone your magical maturity yet despite your high magical strength. I am surprised you are this strong magically even before your magical maturity. This the first time it has happened so I have to check the rules. Usually the people who join the academy are m?tur? wizards who came here to better themselves. You are the first underage wizard who has passed our entry test which is designed keeping m?tur? wizards in mind. We do have underage wizards inside the academy premises but they are allowed inside due to them being the family members of the various elders."


    Before he could continue I decided to intervene and said "I want you to know that I am an emancipated minor in the British magical world. I hope that solves some of the problems."


    Elder Atulya noted the information and after going through some files, said "You being emancipated does solve some of the problems. After going through the rules, there is only one extra condition that you have meet before you are allowed to enter the academy. the condition is that you must have magical reserves equal to that of an Adept Wizard. After seeing your duel, I am sure you will meet this criterion but we must do this for formality sake."


    This made me curious since this was the first time I was hearing about magical ranks. I always wanted to know the numerical measure of my strength but did not find any way to calculate it in any book. This was my chance to know how strong I have become.


    I asked curiously "There is a way to measure magical capacity and what are the various ranks of wizards?"


    Elder Atulya became shocked and replied "Yes there is a simple way to measure magical capacity. You do not have a means to do that in Britain? This is news to me. Here it is quite common. We have a spell which measures magical strength quickly. It is quite handy when you want to know the results of your hard work. The ranking system followed here and in most of the other parts of the world is


    No magic ¨C 0


    Squib ¨C 0 ¨C 50


    Novice Wizard ¨C 50 ¨C 200


    Apprentice Wizard ¨C 200 - 300


    Competent Wizard ¨C 300 - 400


    Adept Wizard ¨C 400 - 500


    Elite Wizard ¨C 500 - 600


    Mage ¨C 700 - 800


    High Mage ¨C 800 - 900


    Grand Mage ¨C 900 - 1000


    Archmage ¨C 1000 - 1100


    High Archmage ¨C 1100 - 1200


    Grand Archmage ¨C 1200 +


    An average ?du?t wizard is ?ssumed to have the strength of an Adept wizard. Also there are no known Grand Archmages presently in this world. In fact the only ever known Grand Archmages since the beginning of magic were from Britain; Merlin and Morgana le fay. They lived during the golden age during which there were many arch-mages around the world. There hasn''t been another Grand arch mage anywhere in the world in the past millennia. Now I am going to cast the spell at you to measure your strength. Don''t worry it will not hurt. Ready?"


    When I nodded he cast a blue spell at me. The wordings of the spell made no sense to me due to it being in another language. The spell hit me and I felt a tingling sensation throughout my body. When the sensation stopped, in front of Elder Atulya, a large number in blue appeared.


    Elder Atulya said in a shocked tone "491!! You have not undergone magical maturity and you are already this strong! I knew you were strong but this is crazy. The power boost you will gain on your maturity will be a lot. You will catch up to my strength of 957 in no time at all."


    After hearing Elder Atulya''s strength, I know that Dumbledore and Voldemort have the strength close to that of an Archmage. I knew they were not arch mages though since they are said to have an aura around them when they fight and I have not heard about that happening when Dumbledore and Voldemort fight. Despite that I was sure that I couldn''t defeat them in a fair fight anytime soon. I am sure it will require more years of hard work before I can defeat them in a duel. I really have to find the reason due to which Harry was able to defeat Voldemort quite easily in those duels since it did not make any sense to me.


    Elder Atulya "Let''s move on. Since you meet all the requirements, I will take you through the admission process."


    An hour of paperwork later, I was the newest member of the academy. It was a tiring hour since I had to go through a lot of contracts that I had to sign before I could join. The contracts were there to protect the secrets of the academy. The contracts for people belonging to ICW countries were stricter than those used for other people since the academy did not want the ICW to know anything about them. After signing the contract, I could not tell others a lot of information about the academy. I couldn''t even tell others the exact location of the academy. There were no limitations on what I could study in the academy but there were limitations on what I could teach to other from what I learned at the academy. In an essence, the contracts were there to protect the secrets of the academy.


    During the admission process, I also had to pay an admission fee of 50,000G. This was a one-time fee for a life time membership. I did not need to pay more fees every year. This was a lot and again the fee was five times as much due to me belonging to an ICW country. The fee allowed me access to all the facilities that the academy provided like training facilities, libraries, common courses, accommodation etc. Of course, for specialised courses and food, I had to pay extra. The fee was not a problem for me since I was loaded and add to that I had a basilisk corpse worth nearly 1 million Galleons waiting for me at Hogwarts next term.


    After paying the required fees and going through information about the academy, I had my schedule planed for my next two months in the academy.


    5 am to 7 am ¨C Meditation and Exercises


    8 am to 12 pm ¨C Duelling Course


    1 pm to 6 pm ¨C Healer Course


    8 pm to 12 am ¨C Library


    The meditation and exercise in the morning was an important ritual followed in the academy. Elder Atulya told me that I will be taught various things that will be very beneficial for my mind and body and encouraged me to join everyone for the meditation exercises.


    Of all the magic fields, I chose Duelling and Healing because the academy gave me what I desperately needed to complete my mastery studies in those fields. Healing course includes working in the Hospital which will provided me the much needed experience and Duelling course will provide me lots of opponents to have a duel with.


    After all the formalities were over Elder Atulya said "Congratulations on joining our academy family. Make good use of the short time you are going to stay here. I have great expectations about your future. Tomorrow morning after the meditation exercises, go to the Academy hospital and get yourself immunised for all the local magical diseases. It will be done free of cost. Now I remember Elder Nainesh wanting to meet you. His room is on the 3rd floor, right corridor, second room. He will be free in his room at this time so it is better if you meet him now."


    After clearing few more doubts I had about the academy from Elder Atulya, I left his room.

 Chapter 70 - Improving Mage Sight

    After leaving Elder Atulya''s room, I made my way towards Elder Nainesh''s room on the third floor. I reached his room easily without getting lost in the building. There were no magical pathways or moving staircases to confuse people and make them lose their way inside the building. On receiving permission to enter the room from Elder Nainesh, I entered the room. The room was nothing spectacular and was very similar to Elder Atulya''s room which I had been in earlier.


    Elder Nainesh "Congratulations on joining the academy. Good thing you passed despite being an underage wizard. Keep working hard and I am sure you will surpass us Elders in strength very easily.


    Now you must be wondering why I asked you to see me? Well I wanted to ask you about your gift."


    Seeing my confused expression after hearing his question, he continued " I meant how far developed is your mage sight?"


    This was shocking for me for two reasons. Firstly, he was able to see through my sight which no one had been able to detect in my whole life. I know there is a slight change in my eyes when I activate it but I had my mage sight activated the whole time I was in the academy so he could not have detected it that way. Secondly, his question meant that my mage sight could be improved which I did not think was possible.


    On seeing that I did not reply to his question and my shocked expression he started laughing. This brought me out of my thoughts.


    I asked "How do you know that I possess mage sight?"


    Elder Nainesh stopped laughing and replied "Don''t think too deeply into it. I know because I also have the gift and using it I was able to detect the unique traces of magic around your eyes which happens only when one activates his mage sight. The gift is not too rare and I have seen many people possessing it during my life. In fact most of my tribe members have mage sight and I have also seen some rare foreigners possessing it. That does not mean that it is a common trait here. Presently, you are the only foreigner in the academy possessing it. Now coming back to my earlier question, how far developed is your mage sight?"


    This new information disappointed me a lot. I knew there was a chance that many people may have mage sight but still I wanted to be the only one having it so that I can be the only one with the powerful advantage. I wanted the mage sight to be my family''s unique trait. But it looks like I am not that lucky.


    I put that thought away and replied "I did not know there was a way to develop the mage sight. I activated it when I was seven and only practised using till I was comfortable activating it instantly. I am an orphan and there was no person to guide me on its usage. I looked through my family books but it too does not say anything about developing it further."


    Elder Nainesh "I understand now. Your family books not talking about developing mage sight makes a lot of sense. The developing process must be done carefully so it can be done only with the help of a guide. Doing it carelessly may lead to the destruction of your eyes. If your ancestors had written about in the books you would have recklessly tried it and thus made mistakes."


    I asked "Can you tell me more about the mage sight? I thought the mage sight I was using was perfect and there was nothing to improve in it. I can already see all the magic around without any problems."


    Elder Nainesh "You are wrong there. Currently you are using the most rudimentary level of mage sight. By developing it you can control what all you see with your eye. You can toggle between seeing only one type of magic like if you want to see only the wards without other sources of magic disturbing your concentration. Or you want to see only the magic core of different people clearly without the magic circulating in their body confusing you. It will help you a lot in highly magical environments. You can do this only by developing your control over mage sight. If you further try to improve mage sight, then you will be able to see magic through the walls. You can use the ability for a lot of different things like searching for someone or see an enemy who is hiding from you. The ability will be limited distance at first but after practising and developing it, you will be able to increase the distance bit by bit until no physical object can block your sight. Currently I can cover the whole academy with my eyes and I am no way near perfecting it."


    I was overjoyed after hearing this. From the information I had just been given, I can conclude that the fully developed mage sight is like the Byakugan in Naruto which will be very useful in the future. I can use it to find all the hidden pathways and rooms inside the Hogwarts castle. This was exciting and I cannot wait to achieve that.


    I said "Thank you Elder for enlightening me about the future of mage sight."


    Elder Nainesh nodded and said "Currently I am the only one inside the academy that can help you develop your sight so I will be taking you under my tutelage. One week will be enough for me to teach you all the basics. After that you will not need my help and can improve on your own. Come here every day for the next week at 7 in the evening. Our sessions will begin tomorrow. Don''t be late. I am only doing this for you because I see a lot of potential in you. So don''t disappoint me."


    I thanked him for giving me the opportunity to learn under him and left the room. A lot of time had passed since I had entered the academy and it was already night time.


    I had already acquired a map of the academy from Elder Atulya and the map also contained various information about the academy including the various Floo addresses to different parts of the academy. This will be very helpful in making my first few days in the academy less troublesome and allow me to go to different parts of the academy without getting lost.


    It was late. So without wasting time, I decided to go and complete all my tasks. I visited the clothing shop first and got myself fitted with new clothes. The helpers in the shop were very helpful in teaching me how to wear the unique clothes. It was a little complicated process to wear those pants but they were more comfortable than pants so no complains there. After that I visited the common dining area where I sated my hunger. The food was of Indian variety and tasted good but not as good as the ones I had in Delhi.


    Next was getting myself a room which was a simple task. I asked for a single room myself and the person in charge was happy to provide it for me. After entering the room, I quickly made my bed and fell asleep. I was too tired to unpack or even look around the room I had just gotten. I left that for the morning.

 Chapter 71 - Meditation exercises

    The next day, I got up early at 5 in the morning. After a quick freshen up, I started unpacking my things and modifying the room according to my needs. The room I was provided was very simple and small with only a bed and a cupboard in it. There was no table or chair bit it was not a big problem because I can always conjure them when required.


    I had to modify the room all by myself in a short time according to my needs. I realized that I had become dependent on my house elves for things like this over the years and wished they were here with me. But unfortunately I could not bring them with me due to India being unfamiliar to me and I did not know their views on house elves.


    After I was ready, I made my ways towards the common meditation area. All non-elder academy members had to meditate in the meditation grounds. When I reached the meditation grounds, I found the place to be quite soothing for my mind and soul. The place had an aura that cleared my mind and also removed the fatigue I had from the previous day.


    By the time I reached the place, the meditation platform was already packed with more than a thousand people. One thing I found surprising about the crowd was that in spite of so many people being there on the platform, there was no noise and it was quiet. Many people were already sitting in lotus position and were preparing to start meditation. Maybe it was the effect of the magical aura of the grounds that calmed everyone.


    I found the elder in charge easily among the crowd due to his unique Elder clothing and asked his help to get myself started in the meditation exercises. He lent me a small book that contained a brief description of different meditation exercises and said


    "Go through the list of various meditation exercises and chose the one which you would like to practice first. I will direct someone to teach you that exercise and also give you the detailed instructions of that exercise when you have chosen.


    Different exercises have different benefits but you can practice only one at a time or else you won''t gain any benefits. So choose carefully. There are four stages in each exercise early, mid, late and peak. You begin at early stage and only when you have reached mid stage in that exercise can you stop and try another exercise otherwise all your progress in the first exercise will be lost. Similarly when going from mid to late stage you cannot stop or you will lose all progress. You can take today off and take your time selecting a exercise. Tomorrow you can start."


    So I left the meditation ground and went back to room. There I started going through the various exercises mentioned in the book. After a brief read, I was amazed and awed by the different meditation exercises and their benefits. There were meditation exercises for improvement in many fields.


    There was one exercise in the book that attracted me the most. It was an exercise that increased the strength of the soul and helped in repelling mind and soul based attacks. The process of doing this exercise was not written but the benefits were, which told that it was a must learn for me. One benefit of it was that it made me immune to the confundus charm and the imperius curse. At peak stage even spells from Grand Arch-mages will not affect me. Another benefit was that soul based attacks from an Horcrux will not affect me in the slightest.


    But this was not what attracted me to this exercise. It was a side note written below the description of the exercise which said that when this exercise was practices to the peak stage, the Avada Kedavra curse which was a soul based killing curse will not kill me and I will be immune to it. This side note made this exercise the most beneficial exercise in the book to me.


    The AK curse was something that I was most vary of in this magical world. It was a scary curse and I always had my mage sight active in most occasions to protect myself from being ?ssassinated. The only way to block it was to summon some object in front of its path or dodge from the curse but this can only be done if you can see the curse coming which may not always be possible. This curse was also the most common spell used by dark wizards due to it not requiring much magical strength to cast and I had been searching for a way to protect myself from it for a lond time. Now that I had found this exercise, I was overjoyed. I was not going to stop until I had practiced this exercise to perfection.


    I wanted to practice the all the exercises in the book but each exercise needed many years to practice to perfection which made it impossible. I may be a little bit faster than most geniuses bit still it would take a lot of time. It did not take much time to practice to early stage so I was planning to reach atleast reach that stage in most of the exercises.


    Some of the exercises gave most benefit when done before magical maturity so as much as I wanted to solely concentrate on the soul, I could not since practising other exercises like increasing magical pathway and body strength were more important for my future growth. I am sad that I was not able to find these wonderful exercises early in my life.


    I decided to practice the exercises important to me to late level atleast before my magical maturity in two years. This was possible since time taken for going from early to late stage in an exercise was much less than going from late to peak stage in the same exercise. Talented students take 7 months to reach late stage but take an extra 3 years to reach peak stage. Average people take more than 10 years to practice a single exercise to perfection. I planned on completing atleast four exercises to late stage in the two years before my maturity and then start soul exercise. I could then concentrate solely on the exercise till achieving peak stage in it.


    Now that a plan was made, I decided to move on to the other activities of the day. First, I went to the hospital to get myself immunized. It did not take much time and I still had a lot of time left before I had to go for my duelling classes.


    I ate my breakfast next and on finding a lot of time still being left, I decided to get myself one of those ring magic foci. Magic performed with wand was more powerful than gone by ring by a small margin but the ring was more comfortable and handy. It was always in my hand I did not have to summon it or search for it during an emergency.


    So a short visit to the magic foci crafter later, I had a ring made of holly wood with a core made of a tooth of a type of magical lion indigenous to India. The ring was black in colour with a white piece of tooth in the middle. It also had a drop of my blood in it which made it usable only by me. It had better compatibility than my current wand so the spells performed with it were as strong as the ones performed with my current ok compatibility Olivander wand.

 Chapter 72 - Duelling and Healing Classes

    The duelling class was held in the biggest training ground in the academy. The ground housed the 200 or so people who decided to sign up for the duelling classes. There were many Elders teaching the class due to the large amount of students opting for it. The class was split into groups and each Elder was in charge of teaching at most 15 students. There were two large duelling fields and a open hit style classroom for each group. You can guess the size of the size of the training ground with this information.


    I was ?ssigned to Elder Akash''s group which also had Rohit and surprisingly Aryan in it. I was happy to see the familiar faces in my class. They introduced me to the rest of the group. The people in the group all had good magical strengths near the same level. Also everyone except me belonged to 19-24 age group.


    In the group of 15, there were only 2 girls and by looking around the training field I found that it was more or less the same in other groups. This was surprising since when I looked around in the morning in the meditation grounds, the ratio of men and women was almost equal. It was no large disparity like this. When I asked about it to one of the girls, she said that most tribes do not allow girls to take up duelling field since it was male dominated and against their tribe''s culture. The girls were only encouraged to take up Healing and Potions related fields as it required less physical strain. The Indian society, both mundane and magical was like that, I was informed.


    There were also two non-Indians in my group. Both were from Asian countries near here. One was from Thailand and another was from Singapore. These countries had very small magical population and hence the children in these communities were taught by their parents or relatives in their own homes and only when a child wanted to further pursue his magical studies was he sent here or to one of the Chinese sects. This was preferred since Chinese sects had many restrictions.


    Coming to the Duelling class, it focused mainly on the practical side of duelling. We were expected to be ready with our own spells for the duels. Hence despite my late entry I did not have a lot to catch up on.


    The class started with Elder Akash directing us to run a few ??ps around the huge ground as warm-up. We were joined in the run by the other groups in the training ground. This was followed by a few warm up exercises to avoid unnecessary injuries. Elder Akash then pit the 15 of us against each other in mock duelling battles. Elder Akash observed all of them and when a battle was over, he gave us his views on what a did wrong and what he had to improve on.


    To my disappointment and shame, I lost all of my 12 out of my 14 matches. Every one of them except two newcomers like me had more than 2 years of duelling experience and destroyed me very easily in the matches. Everyone had different and unique styles and before I could find ways to defeat them they easily knock me out. Rohit it seemed like was holding back quite a lot in the last duel just so that I had a chance to pass the test. He defeated me in a few minutes in today''s match by moving a lot faster than last time and knocking me out. Aryan cast unique and powerful spells that I did not know how to defend against. One of my group mates named Akhil was able to shoot spells out his eyes and caught me off-guard. I was told that it was his tribes speciality and none of the other tribes were able to replicate it. Thankfully even after all the battles, I was not physically hurt and I did not have to get treatment otherwise I would have missed my Healing classes.


    Elder Akash called me aside after the mock duels and told me what I lacked was spells that subdued people and the experience duelling otherwise I had both the physical and magical strength required to defeat them. He recommended some books related to non-lethal duelling spells to make up for my lack of spells and then the class resumed.


    The next part of class was dodging. Elder Akash would send small stones at us at high speeds and we had to dodge without using spells. I excelled in this due to my improved eye sight and reaction speeds due to my falcon animagus and faced no problems.


    With that today''s Duelling classes ended. Tomorrow there will be mock duels again but instead of dodging practice, we will have another practice. I was quite happy with how the class was conducted. The duel defeats brought me back to the reality and taught me that even if I was magically stronger than everyone and knew a lot about magic, I could still be defeated easily by someone weaker than me. It was a good lesson to learn. In real life I could not afford these defeats as it could lead to my death but here I could afford to lose and learn from my mistakes.


    After a short rest and lunch, it was time for my Healing class. I am expecting to face a lot of problems in this class. All the healing knowledge I have learned till now is in English while here it is totally different. The people here have their own spells and their own way of doing things. I will not be able to use my past knowledge here and I will have to learn what is taught here from the ground up. The class may end up as a waste of time for me.


    The class ended up being a lecture. We sat in our seats listening to Elder Yamini talk about various medical things. This was the first time I was seeing a female Elder in the academy. She looked like she was over 60 years old and wore the traditional clothing called saree but unlike the male Elders clothing, her saree was colourful.


    The class was too boring to me. I knew all of the things that she was teaching and I felt it was a waste of time. All the information was same just different names.


    I needed to do something about this class since I was sure after the first class that it was going to be a waste of my time. So I met Elder Yamini after class and explained my situation to her. After a few minutes of interoggation she understood my situation and gave me a way out of it.


    She listed out some 10 books to me and told me that I had to memorize all of them in three days. For these three days I was given permission to skip the class but after the deadline was over, I will be required to write a test to check my knowledge and if I pass, she will ask a Master healer to take me as an apprentice. If I fail, I will be kicked out of the class and will not be allowed to attend the class again.


    The ?ssignment was quite challenging but I felt it was an easy thing to do so I agreed. After thanking her for giving me such a chance, I left the room and walked towards my next destination. The academy library.

 Chapter 73 - Academy Library

    The academy library was only a short walk away and was quite close to the Elder''s Building. The library building from the outside was only a small single storied building and no one will be able to guess that the building holds one of Asia''s largest libraries. On the inside, the buildings show its true colours. Instead of a single floor, there were 10 different floors with each floor having a size similar to a football field. It could be said that this library was more than 10 times larger than the Hogwarts library.


    This fact is not too surprising. Unlike Britain in which only a single language is used for all purposes, Magical India had more than 15 different official languages due to different tribe''s having their very own language. Books written in all these languages were present inside this library.


    One thing I was thankful for in India was that despite there being so many languages, all the spells were in one language, Sanskrit. If every tribe used and taught their own version of spells in their native language, then having an academy will have no meaning. Each elder will teach in his/her language and due to this, the only people who will sign up for their classes will be their own tribe members since no one will be interested in learning a different language just to learn from the elder. If this was going to be the case, then the Elder could have conducted the class in his tribe itself.


    Of the more than 15 languages here, I knew only English and Hindi. So I could read only the books in these two languages. The first two floors had only Hindi books while the English book filled a small part of the 10 floor. English was not a common used language here. I had only some average fluency in Hindi so I will have to improve my proficiency in it if I want to make good use of all these books.


    The third and fourth floors had books written in Sanskrit language and I will have to learn the language sometime soon in the future to make my learning process here faster. The language was not commonly spoken in the present era but most of the old and informative books were written in the Sanskrit language and if I wanted to read and learn from them, I will have to learn language.


    Much to my disappointment there was no easy way to solve this problem since there were no magical translators or spells that I could use to translate these books into English. People in India had tried very hard to make this possible over the years but they had failed miserably. I too felt that such a thing was impossible since different languages did not follow a pattern that could be used to magically translate it. Languages did not follow rules and were made by old people on a whim according to their needs.


    The people here did invent a spell to make learning language easier though which I am going to make good use of. The spell will make it possible for me to completely learn a language in a month. All I had to do was memorise some books that came recommended with the spell and it will allow me to learn the language quickly. I am planning to use it to perfect my Hindi first and then learn Sanskrit. I did not plan to learn any other Indian language.


    The library was huge and I already had a list of books that were recommended to me today that I had to read. I did not have time to waste since I had a deadline which I had to keep. I did not have too much time to waste.


    Before going to the Healer section, I decided to visit the English section first since I wanted to see what was available in there. Also it was the language I was most comfortable with in this library.


    To get to the 10th floor, the people here had invented a magical variant of lift. It was a levitating disk on a platform which would follow my command in a way similar to that of a broom and take me to my floor. I liked the idea so much that I wanted to replicate this type of lift in my black castle. I planned on completely renovating the Black castle and this lift was added to the list of changes I wanted to make.


    On the 10th floor, the English section was easy to find. The section consisted of 15 large bookshelves filled to the brim with books. This was a small number when compared to the even the Hogwarts library except that the books here were priceless. On glancing through the books, I found that the collection did not have any new books but instead every one of the books was an antique and were more than a 100 years old. Some were even more than 700 years old. Even my black library did not have these book and I wondered where the academy got them from.


    The books were calling for me to read them but I controlled myself and went towards the Healer section of the library. I badly wanted to start reading the books but I knew that I had no time for them currently. I could come back here after 3 days and start reading them.


    The checkout system here was quite unique. First of all, all the books in the library were warded to protect from damage and making copies. At the checkout counter I had to specify the number of days I needed a book. The books had another set of runes that were then programmed in such a way that when the rental period ended, the book will be automatically returned to its original location in the library. The books will also return to the library of I take it outside the academy boundary. I was very impressed by this system.


    After checking out the books for 3 days, I left the library as it was time for my next class. The mage sight tutoring with Elder Nainesh.


    When I entered his room he was very excited to start teaching me. I learn the reason for it later during the class. It was due to the fact that my mage sight was different from his and he wanted to compare both and conduct experiments. The main difference was that my mage sight only showed a slight glow in my eyes when activated which his not noticeable while his and his tribes mage sight had tell tale sign when activated. His eyes started twinkling like Dumbledore''s glasses when mage sight was activated so he couldn''t discreetly use the sight like I always did.


    The class was very productive. The method to toggle between different modes was controlling the amount of magic that I sent into my eyes. For the seeing through walls effect I had to rotate my the magic around my eyes. The amount of magic in the eyes and my control in rotating it perfect decided the distance I could see and what I could see.


    It was difficult to do since I had not practiced controlling the amount of magic that I could send to my eyes ever in my life. For the first class I did just that. Controlling the magic. By the end of the class I had gotten a slight hang of the method and I could toggle between the modes just for a short few seconds before I lost control. I was sure I could perfect this in a weeks time.


    After that productive one hour class, I went back to my room. It was time for me to start reading those books since time was tight. After conjuring a table and a chair, I started reading, beginning with the language book so that my later reading will be quicker.

 Chapter 74 - Academy Days

    The next day I early morning I went to the Elder in charge of teaching mediation and got myself the complete instruction manual for the meditation exercise I had chosen and also someone to help myself get started on its practice. The exercise I had chosen to begin with was the one which improved the physical strength of my body. It felt right to me to improve my body physically before I move on to the magical side.


    The exercise was sitting in the lotus position and circulating my magic inside my body in a specific pattern and keep doing it till I reach the next stage in the exercise. After reaching the next stage, the pattern in which magic is circulated is changed and the process continues. Each stage was designed for specific parts of the body. The early stage was for bone strengthening.


    The instructions and the help from the guide made it possible for me to get started on the exercise. The exercise removed the tiredness from my body but did not show any noticeable change in the physical strength after the first day of exercise. It was going to be a slow process.


    After meditation, it was time for duelling classes which passed more or less in a similar way to that of yesterday. I again lost all except 2 duels but this time I made my opponents work a little harder for the win. There were no instant knockouts on my side. Other than the mock duel, today instead of dodging practice, we had to block spells sent by Elder Akash by bringing stones in the path of the spells. I was able to block a lot of spells at the beginning but when he sped things up, it became too much for me.


    After duelling, it was back to reading the ?ssigned medical books. Despite there being large number of books my reading speed was fast due to the fact that I already knew the concept and just had to memorize the Hindi names for things.


    In the same manner, the next two days passed by quickly.


    On the third day of practicing the meditation exercise, I was able to feel a slight increase in my bone strength. This made me quite happy and I continued practising the exercise with renewed interest.


    My duelling skills improved by quite a lot in these two days. I was able to defeat 6 members of my group in the mock battles. The four new wins were long drawn out battles but I did win in the end. With others also I had long battle but I was not able to defeat them. Elder Akash was quite impressed with my improvement.


    My control over mage sight had improved considerably. I was now able to easily toggle between different modes and also keep it it that mode indefinitely. I liked the new modes since it made my sight much more clearer in highly magical areas. I had started up on the seeing through walls thing but it was still a work in progress.


    Coming to the ?ssignment I had been ?ssigned by Elder Yamini, I had finished reading and memorising all of the books on the list. It took some time since not everything was same as what I had read back in Hogwarts. There were quite a number of different and new practices that were followed here. These included improvements on quite a lot of old medical practices that were still being used in Britain.


    This was due to many reasons. Unlike Britain, India did not lack good Healers. While Britain was losing good potential healers due to Snape''s poor teaching of Potions and also due to the ministry banning some good potion by declaring them dark, India had quite a lot of Master healers and the number was growing every year. Due to the high numbers they were not over worked and had a lot of free time to focus on medical research to invent new things.


    One thing I liked most in the improvements by Indian Healers was that they had found ways to make the potions taste good. I am sure if I bring this method back to Britain, many people will start worshiping me. The Healers here had found certain species of magical plants which when added in already prepared potions acted only as a taste enhancer while not ruining the potion or reacting in any way with the potion. I am of the opinion that this was a much needed improvement in the potion making sector. Due to the bad taste many patients reluctantly drink only small amounts of potions or vomit some of the potions. This leads to ineffective treatment in many cases.


    The Indian healers had also invented spells that could track viruses and get rid of them. They did this by getting inspiration from the muggle medical instruments and imitating their effects with magic. This practice was not available in Britain as per my knowledge. This was due to the fact that magical people were highly resistant to viruses. The magic inside people usually killed the viruses before they can cause any harm. But this was changing in the recent times. Indian Healers had found some viruses inside people that had evolved to resist the magic.


    Due to the fact that I had completely memorized the books that were listed to me, I passed the Elder Yamini''s test had given me after I went to her with flying colours. She was so impressed that she wasted no time in recommending me to her disciple, Healer Sesha who worked full time in the academy hospital.


    Healer Sesha was only 35 years old but still was a respected healer in the academy hospital with many accolades to her name. She asked me some questions to confirm my medical proficiency and after she was satisfied with knowledge in the field, made me her apprentice in the hospital. All I had to do was follow her around and do some small tasks while she looked after her patients. I could still watch her treat patients and learn from it. I also had to help her in some of her ongoing medical researches. I did not have to brew potions for her which I was very happy about since I was not too confident in that department yet and did not want to make mistakes which could lead to the death of a person.


    She ?ssigned me more books to read and I had to finish them as soon as possible so again I did not have time to start reading the old English books in the library which I badly wanted to read.


    After being made a apprentice to Healer Sesha, my days became very hectic. I was busy everyday with Duelling classes, helping Elder Sesha out and reading more and more books that were recommended to me by Elder Akash and Healer Sesha.


    Despite the hectic schedule, I did not have any complains since this was what I wanted and needed. Also the meditation exercises helped me a lot during these days by clearing my tiredness away, soothing my muscle soreness and also increasing my endurance. Due to this, I was very satisfied with my decision to practice this meditation exercise first.


    I became a little free when my classes with Elder Nainesh finished after a week. I was still not good at the seeing through walls thing. I had been able to activate that ability and see through the wall in front of me and see the magical things in the next room but that was it for now. I will need many days of exercise to increase that distance. Elder Nainesh was also able to gain something from teaching me and conducting experiments. He said he had found a way to hide the signs that showed when he activated mage sight but the method needed a lot of practice before he could use it effectively. I was that he gained something because otherwise I would have owned him a favor for helping me and I did not like owning people favors.

 Chapter 75 - History of Magical Europe - I

    The English section in the academy library contained books on many magical topics but what attracted me the most was the books on History of magic. I wanted to know how magical Europe with strong wizards like the founders and Merlin some 1000 years ago had been reduced to such a sorry state. I hoped these books would help me find answers I am looking for since I was unable to find them in Hogwarts Library.


    I started with the oldest book and then proceeded to read the other books. What I found after a few days of research in the library was enlightening as well as saddening. The history of magical Europe was full of ups and downs that made you feel sorry for the people living there.


    The book said that magical world came into being only some 6500 years ago. Before that there were no magical creatures or people on earth. It all changed one day when there was a major worldwide Earthquake. The earthquake not only led to the death and destruction of many lives but also brought many changes to the Earth''s crust. It is believed that during the earthquake somehow the lay lines came into being. No one knows how that was made possible but it is ?ssumed to have happened. There is no way to confirm this but since there is no evidence of magic on earth before that worldwide earthquake, everyone believes that the ley lines were formed or dormant ley lines got activated due to the earthquake.


    It is believed that the first ley lines originated near Europe, some distance away from mainland Europe in the Atlantic Ocean and from there, the ley lines spread to other parts of the world in no time. But the ley lines were not equally spread under the earth''s crust. While some locations were kilometres away from the nearest ley line, some other locations housed intersections of two or more ley lines. It led to the non-uniform distribution of magic on the Earth''s surface. One thing to note was that when the ley lines came into being, none of them passed even close to the human settlements or places with large population of wildlife. Most of the ley lines passed through plain land that did not have any large forests.


    So due to the less amount of tress and animal in regions with high magic, there were no other changes in the world for the first few years after the ley lines were formed. Later as years passed, plants and trees started growing on these magic rich grounds due to natural seed dispersal. As number of trees grew and the plains became small forests, animals and birds started moving to these magic rich places and made their nests there. With the plants and animals living in these magic rich areas, they started evolving and eventually evolved into magical creatures and plants.


    So the first to become magical were not humans but the plants and animals. The evolution of humans came later when these evolved magical creatures started attacking human settlements and threatening human life. The attacks led to human warriors hunting down the strange magical creatures as an act of revenge. Many warriors also went to fight these magical creatures to showcase their strength to others and gain recognition. The warriors tracked down the beasts to their nests and killed all the dangerous beasts that lived in that forest. When the warriors were looking around the forest for more prey they discovered that the forest was very rich in natural resources. They went back to their homes and after they discussed this discovery with the elders of their families, decided to move their families near the forests and form a village near it. The exposure to high concentration of magic in the area led to some of the children born in these families to develop a magic core in their body and becoming the very first magical humans.


    From the appearance of the ley lines on Earth and the appearance of the first magical human, more than 2000 years had passed. It took that many years for the above mentioned things to happen and lead to the birth of the first magical human.


    In the hunts all the evolved magical beats near human settlements were killed. Only the magical creatures in remote locations around the world survived and grew stronger.


    As the communities in the magic rich areas grew, more and more children became magical. This was the beginning of the human magical age. At that time communities were small and people saw the special children with magical abilities as the children of god. Only in some communities around the world were the children killed for being unnatural. The surviving children grew up and started experimenting with their magic to find the limit of their abilities. They also started experimenting with all the magical plants and animals they found near their villages.


    Slowly but surely the magical humans invented new magical things and put them to good use. This was happening all around the world. Years passed and magical communities were formed all around the world. New things that could be done with magic were invented every day and the development of magic was happening rapidly all around the world.


    Magical plants and beasts also developed simultaneously. Many newly evolved plants species were discovered. Various species of animals and birds evolved and gained magical abilities. Most of the development was in forests far away from human interference. Some magical snakes evolved into basilisks while some evolved into the world''s first dragons. Some birds evolved into phoenixes and thunderbirds.


    Near 800 AD that is more than 5000 years after the birth of the first magical human, magic had been developed by humans to very high stages. Compared to no magical humans less than a millennium ago, now there were hundreds of thousands of human magic users all around the world. There were many arch mages and grand arch mages all around the world with more of them being in Europe.


    But due to the low population of magical population compared to non-magical population, less than 1 percentage of world''s population, the magical communities decided to stay hidden from the outside world. This rule was very strictly observed in Europe due to the presence of Church there. Other countries did not have as many problems as in Europe but they still decided to stay hidden. Most of the other countries saw supernatural activity as a good thing so small accidents by wizards led to them being seen as messengers of gods. These people took advantage of this misunderstanding by spreading good messages to their worshipers. The wizards spread the message of peace and harmony so that one day when they came out in the open, they will be welcomed with open arms.

 Chapter 76 - History of Magical Europe - II

    But the peace did not remain for long in the magical world as many problems started appearing around 800AD that threatened to destroy the peace. Around that year, in the non-magical side many wars started happening between different small kingdoms and during these wars some magical people died as collateral damage when the enemy armies destroyed their villages. This angered many wizards and witches. They had no problems with remaining hidden from the world despite superior strength but when due to the wars magical people started dying, they were angered and wanted to do something.


    The magical people saw the constant wars that were happening in the non-magical world as a sign of them being unfit of being rulers. Also the magical people did not want non magical people to rule them. Thus many magical families decided to take the power into their hands. To do this, the magical families formed their own small kingdoms and started conquering other smaller kingdoms to become a decent large size kingdom. They still decided to hide their magic and fought battles the normal way only using some hidden magic attacks to cause large damage to their enemies when needed. They had to do hide magic since other kingdoms could use it as a reason to rally people against them and overthrow them.


    This happened only in Europe. The countries in other continents did not have Europe''s problems and thus did not bother about the happenings of the mundane world. They were happy to remain hidden and live their life peacefully. With the European magical people and families concentrating more on the mundane side, the magical development slowed down in Europe compared to other places.


    In Europe, the kingdoms which were secretly under rule by magical people grew into large kingdoms over a period of many years. They conquered other lands and increased the size of their kingdoms. When conflicts happened between two kingdoms under rule of magical families over land, they were resolved with secret magical duels. In this way after many years passed filled with wars and conquests almost all of Europe was taken over by large kingdoms under magical families. Britain and other countries came into being in this way.


    The kings and queens ruled over their kingdoms properly. To avoid future problems, the other magical families were given noble ranks and given land to rule. The non-magical war heroes were also given noble ranks and land to rule to appease the people of the kingdom. Due to the efforts of the various magical rulers, the rate of development in the non-magical side increased exponentially. It can be concluded that the increased rate of development of Europe compared to other places was mainly due to the actions of magical rulers.


    But all was not well. For some years it was calm but later big problems started appearing. The magical people who did not belong to large families did not like the fact that they and the non-magical people had equal rights in the kingdom under the rule of magical people. They did not like the fact that they were not given special status in kingdoms ruled by magical people. These people were supported by some small noble magical families who wanted to make use of the conflict to rise up in ranks. This led to many battles happening in the magical side while the mundane side was comparatively calmer.


    To make matters worse for the Monarchs, witch hunts started happening all around the continent. The monarchs were unable to stop the hunts from happening since the influence of the church was high and they did not want conflict with them. Due to the fact that muggleborns could not be detected early before the first accidental magic, they couldn''t do anything to stop the witch hunts. Many small children of magical families were also killed when they showed accidental magic out in the open. This same thing was happening in all countries in Europe.


    The inaction of the monarchs on the perpetrators led to a lot of magical people hating them. They decided to take action on their own and started killing the perpetrators. They also attacked many churches. Many mass killings by wizards happened during that period. The monarchs executed these wizards openly to appease the church. The church had the support of the common people and the magical rulers could not do anything without facing a revolt.


    The common magical people did not like this. They were the ones that were most affected by the witch hunts. They protested against the decision to execute wizards openly just to appease the muggles who they saw as inferior. The people calling for special status in the kingdom and action against the church as revenge for the witch hunts increased. The war in the magical side escalated and sides were formed.


    The light side and the dark side. The light side was made up of people who wanted to find peaceful solutions for the problems and continue to rule the kingdom in the same way without prejudice against non magicals. While the dark side was made up of people who were fed of hiding from the non magicals and wanted to come out in the open and act against them. The dark side also contained people who wanted all magicals to be given the special status.


    The difference in the opinions led to wars in the magical world between the light and dark side. This started the downhill slope in the development of the magical world. Since the light side contained all major magical families, the war was a small scale one at first. But later the war escalated when powerful wizards from the major families with no claim to the family headships started joining the dark side. They wanted to make use of the war to kill their relatives and gain the noble ranks in the kingdom.


    Many deaths occurred in the magical world as well as in the non-magical world. The people in the dark side did not care if the magical world was exposed. Only the light side was worried. So they had to fight the dark side as well as make sure that the magical world was not exposed. There was no peaceful solution available for the various reasons of the conflict and hence there was no end in sight for the war. Only way for the war to end was one of the either sides to give in or to be exterminated.


    Many solutions were tried by powerful magical people to stop the war but none of them succeeded. It was during this time when the founders of Hogwarts came together and founded Hogwarts. Hogwarts acted as a safe place where children could practice magic without the fear of being seen and getting killed by witch hunters. Before Hogwarts was formed, there were no magical schools in Europe or anywhere else in the world. Magic was taught to a child by the child''s parents or family members in their homes. The muggleborns during that time had to join big magical families as guards or servants to get an opportunity to learn to control their magic. But Hogwarts changed everything. Now everyone including muggleborns could go to Hogwarts and learn to control their magic there. But this was not a perfect solution since muggleborns were killed in witch hunts way before they were even found by Hogwarts professors.

 Chapter 77 - History of Magical Europe - III

    When the war between the light and the dark in the European magical world, threatened to expose the magical world to the outside world, the magical people from other countries were forced to interfere in the war just to make sure that it did not happen. The exposure would have led to worldwide wars with the only end being one side getting exterminated. The other countries did not want such a large scale war to take place and intervened. They favored the light side since they were against the dark side''s objective. The war now favored the light side and they started hunting down dark side members. This led to many large scale battles with many deaths both on the light and dark side. The battles led to the loss of many learned wizards and witches belonging to Europe and also the other countries. A lot of powerful wizards including arch mages died over the course of the war which lasted for many years.


    The highest causality number belonged to the Europe. Many highly learned wizards died and with them their knowledge became lost to the world. During the attacks on houses of learned men and other learning institutions, many books and knowledge which had been compiled over many centuries were lost too. This led to the decline in strength of the European magical world. The other countries also lost people but there was no loss of knowledge since the war was happening in Europe and there was no loss of libraries and homes on their side. The wizards who were sent here were strong arch mages due to the scale of the war so when they died the foreign countries also did have a decline in overall strength but due to the fact that many of these arch mages had disciples back home, their knowledge was not lost.


    The last major war which ultimately ended the years of large scale wars was the one between Merlin Ambrosius''s and Morgana le Fay''s forces. Merlin and Morgana were considered the strongest wizard/witch of all time. Merlin with the help of King Arthur Pendragon, the ruler of Britain during that time, and his forces fought Morgana and the Dark side. The war was very long and people fought for many years. The war ended with the death of both Merlin and Morgana in an epic duel between the two. Their disciples and many of the other arch mages in Europe also died in that final battle. A lot of magical knowledge belonging to Europe''s greatest became lost to the world with them.


    When the other countries saw that the strength of wizards in Europe had declined heavily after that epic battle and the scale of the war between the light and dark had reduced to a low level one, they decided to withdraw from the war and Europe. Before withdrawing they made use of the war and low strength of European wizards to deal a crippling blow to the overall strength of magical Europe. They took actions to make sure that no larger scale battles between strong wizards happened ever in the war between the light and dark side in Europe. They stayed for a few more years to undertake that objective and by the time they withdrew from Europe, Europe had become very weak and had no more arch mages.


    It was the end of Europe''s golden age of magic and the other countries were happy to see that happen. Wizards belonging to other countries did not like European wizards because they were very arrogant and belittled them all the time so they celebrated the end of European golden age.


    After that Europe was left alone and other countries decided to not interfere anymore in whatever happened in Europe. They instead decided to spend their time in finding ways to protect themselves from the inevitable exposure of the magical world which was going to happen in the future. They knew that eventually magic will be exposed to the outside world due to the actions of the dark side and when that happened they wanted to be prepared.


    In Europe, with the reduction in strength of the wizards, the light side which had the help of the non-magical side started winning the battles. When the Dark side saw that they were losing, they decided to end the war and go into hiding to restore their strength. So the war between light and dark which was fought for many centuries ended and peace resumed in Europe.


    The European world then continued their normal lives. The population of magical people in Europe had drastically reduced due to the war. Many old magical families had come close to extinction while many families had become extinct. If not for the high magic in Europe due to the presence of large number of ley lines, all magical families would have died out in Europe.


    Movements by the dark side did happen every now and then but the light side always prevailed in the end with the help of the non-magical side. But the non-ending wars caused the development of magic in the continent to progress in a very slow pace.


    The loss of knowledge and the distrust of muggles due to the war led to one major problem in the coming years. People in magical families started interbreeding due to the fear of witch hunts and also hatred towards the muggleborns who were seen as the main cause of the witch hunts and this led to the children being born in the magical families to be squibs. So over the coming centuries many more magical lines died out and many other lines took their place. The small dark apprising that happened frequently also caused the dying out of many old magical lines.


    Due to the inbreeding, by the 17th century, there were no more magical children in the royal family of Britain. Only squibs were left in the family. Most of the other founding families of the British kingdom had also died out. The other magical families did not want to be ruled by squibs belonging to the royal family and demanded the magical and non-magical governments to be separated. The royal family did not want to do this but there was no other option for them other than agree to the demands.


    Many discussions took place between the royal family and the many prominent magical families. After the conclusion of the discussion a treaty was signed between the two parties which contained many conditions which both the sides had to meet in their rule. The royal family still had the support of many magical families due to contracts signed by their ancestors so the magical side had to agree to sign the treaty before they could be allowed to form their own government. The royal family did this mainly to safeguard their lives from the actions of the magical government.


    In this way the British Ministry of Magic was formed to rule magical Britain. After Britain formed their own Ministry, other countries in Europe followed their example to form their governments since their countries were also in similar situations. The magical and non-magical side were separated completely and the governments decided to enforce International Statue of Secrecy to hide the magical world from the outside world.


    After the formation of the magical governments, with people from both light and dark sides having almost equal number of people in the governing body, wars became almost non-existent. But the damage had already been done and the magical development in Europe was way behind that of other foreign places. Even after so many centuries after the epic battle, Europe still had no wizards with the strength of an arch mage.


    The English section of the academy library contained information only until here. Maybe the Hindi section had the recent history of Europe but I already knew what happened after this from my studies so I did not search for it.


    From what I know after the formation of the magical governments, due to the lack of wars, magical development resumed and Europe had started regaining their strength. All was well for many decades but then Grindelwald happened and it was all back to square one. The Grindelwald war was the deadliest one in centuries and was very bad for the already weak European continent. At the end of the 15 year long war, Europe lost many of its good politicians, learned men and also many heads of prominent magical families. The people who took their place in the magical governments after the war were very young and were not prepared for their role. The result of their actions is the current weak European world where studying many types of magic are banned by terming them as dark magic.


    It was going to be a very tough battle if I want to correct everything that is wrong with Europe. I was seriously considering giving up and moving my family ?ssets to India or any other country. But since I had promises to keep, I decided to at least give it a try and if nothing changes for the better I could always go to the academy and become an Elder there.


    I did not know what the treaty which was signed before the magical ministry was formed contained since it had not been leaked to the public. Even the Black and Falken family did not have a copy of the treaty. Not knowing the contents of the treaty was bad since I was sure that some of the treaty conditions had been violated by the magical ministry over the years. The magical ministry was incompetent and this was expected from them.


    I will have to search for the information about the treaty since it could lead to many problems in the future. This means that I will have to sneak into the Department of Mysteries and the Ministry library in the future since these two were the only two places where the treaty was most probably stored. Another option was look for the royal family''s copy but that was going to be more difficult to obtain.


    The planning for this was for some other time, for now all my concentration was on strengthening myself to be stronger than Dumbledore and Voldemort.

 Chapter 78 - Secret of becoming an Arch-mage

    After my first outing at the English section in the academy, I came again and again to look at books on other topics. I skipped most of the books in the section though since they were not needed to me at the moment. I concentrated on general books, books on magical theory and also books on the magical fields that I was already master level in to learn what I had missed in my studies in Hogwarts. The books here were much better than the ones I had used for my studies.


    After learning the two languages, Hindi and Sanskrit amazingly in just two weeks time despite not wholly concentrating on it, I started scouring the library and looking through books on Ancient runes, Warding, Curse Breaking, Healing, DADA and Duelling. I did not have time to look into other subjects.


    I did find the reason for the weird looking magic cores of everyone around me. I had asked Elder Nainesh about it one day when I saw him in the academy. He was delighted to answer my question. He said that the reason that I felt the cores of everyone in the academy was weird was due to them having revolving liquid magic cores. He said that just before attaining magical maturity everyone undergoes a magical ritual that helps transform their magical core into a revolving liquid magic core instead of a motionless liquid magic core. He explained that there was a reason I did not know about this and told me to look the reason up in the library books.


    I looked it and found many things about it and also the reason why this method was practiced. The information about this was not available in the English section for some reason. So I had to look for information in other languages. The Hindi and Sanskrit sections had many books on the topic.


    The advantage of revolving magical core was that it allowed more control over magic. As you core size increases, it becomes difficult to draw the small amount of magic that is required for everyday household spells and people have to practice magical control to make it possible. Revolving core solves this problem and makes magic easier to control. Since magic is always moving and not stationary inside the core, drawing magic for spells is much more easier. The difficulty still increases as strength increases but not by too much and it requires only less magical control exercises to solve the problem in doing small spells. This was one reason why revolving magic core is preferred.


    There exists another reason that makes having revolving magic core very important. When ones magic increases from 999 to 1000 that is one goes from grand mage and steps into arch mage stage, the magic core transforms into a solid spherical core from a liquid spherical core. This transformation is only possible when one has a revolving liquid magic core. The transformation fails and the core stagnates if the person has a non revolving liquid core. So if one wants to become an arch mage he has to make sure that during his magical maturity, his magic core is transformed correctly.


    This knowledge has been lost in Europe.It is due to this that there are no arch mages currently among European wizards. One of the Hindi book on this topic explained the reasons for this. There were two main reasons for this loss of knowledge.


    The main cause of this was the actions of the European wizards themselves. The book said that in old Europe this knowledge about the liquid revolving core was a closely guarded secret. The secret could be shared only among arch mages and it was not even shared to the disciples. This withholding of important information controlled who all could become arch mages in Europe. Young wizards had to to join the factions controlled by arch mages or major magical families if they wanted to become an arch mage. Europe had too many arch mages at that time and the major families and arch mages wanted to control this number.


    The arch mages used the core transformation ritual on their apprentices on their magical maturity without giving them a reason for it. The apprentices could not question their masters on the reason for the ritual. Only when they became arch mages in the future was the secret shared with them.


    This secrecy backfired when all arch mages died out during the fight between the light and dark side and even the last arch mage could not find a way to correct this. He died knowing that there might not be another arch mage in Europe ever again.


    The other countries also had a hand in the knowledge becoming lost. I read in the History of magical Europe that foreign wizards dealt a crippling blow to the strength of wizards in Europe. This was the way they did it.


    They were quite unhappy with the fact that Europe almost exposed their magical world which could have caused the extinction of magical kind. They were jealous that Europe had more ley lines than them which meant that they had better chances of becoming strong wizards. They were angered by the arrogant wizards boasting about the fact that they were stronger than them. They also saw that the war between the light and dark side in Europe was never going to end and wanted to make sure than large scale battles which risked the exposure of magical world did not happen again in Europe.


    After learning all this I was conflicted. I was not happy with the decision the foreigners made but I could understand their reasoning. Arch mages were strong on a wholly different level. The difference between strength of 999 and strength of 1000 was vast. An Arch mage could cause mass destruction with their spells which risked the exposure of magic more during that time. Also I could understand that European wizards were not kind people. If not for the wars in Europe, they most probably would have used the difference in strength to invade other countries and try to rule them just like they had done in the muggle side.


    But it did not matter in the end since I knew that no one was able to reach the barrier to becoming an arch mage in all these years anyway. I can be sure that Grindelwald did not reach that bottleneck since if he had then with the help of the Elder wand he would be as strong as an arch mage and would have won the war easily.


    The only one I know who had reached the barrier in so many centuries is Voldemort. I know this because after looking through his memories I saw that near the end of the Second wizarding war, Voldemort''s strength had stagnated. He tried many rituals to strengthen himself but he could not and had become frustrated due to it. The frustration was the main reason for him making mistakes, believing a prophecy and his defeat in the end at the hands of Harry Potter.


    This new information about the magical core explained a small sentence in the contract that I had signed at the time of joining the academy. The sentence said I was not allowed to say anything about the secret of becoming arch mages to anyone who did not know in anyway. The contract made it impossible for me to allow any of my friends a chance to become arch mages.


    I was happy that they atleast gave me a chance to gain this knowledge. They could have hidden this from me if they wanted but they did not do that. I was also happy that I made my India visit before my magical maturity otherwise I would not have been able to become an arch mage or a grand arch mage in the future. I could always send my children here if I wanted them to become an arch mage in the future.


    For now I did not have any reason to try to release this information. My friends Damien and Elena did not have the potential to become an arch mage. This I knew for sure. There was no way I was going to tell Harry or anyone with high potential near my age group about this for now. I did not want to empower people who may become my enemies in the future.


    What I had done for Harry till now and what I would do for him in his fourth enough was itself too much. If I was not there he would not have reached even a third of his potential or lived long enough to see his grandchildren.


    I scoured through all the books about the magic core and only when I was satisfied with all the information I had gained and was sure that I could perform the ritual did I move on to other topics of study.

 Chapter 79 - Dark Arts

    More days in the academy passed and during those days, after asking the elders and some amount of reading in the library, I was finally able to get a brief idea on a field of magic that I had been planning to start studying for many years but just didn''t find the time - The Dark Arts.


    The belief that dark magic is evil magic in Britain and rest of Europe is wrong. India and many other countries including some ICW countries do not believe that magic could be differentiated into good and evil magic. They believe and I agree with their opinion that magic is inherently neutral. Only based on the intent of the user can the magic performed by them be termed as either good or evil.


    Even the vilest rituals and curses which are termed as dark magic in Europe have proved themselves useful in many scenarios in the past where they have been used to perform good deeds. In one case a ritual which required a human sacrifice was used to heal the people of an entire village of an untreatable and contagious disease. In another case to treat her child who was suffering from a terminal illness, a mother used her life as sacrifice to brew a potion that could treat her child. Hence in the end, the elders of the magical communities decided that they could not simply differentiate magic into good or evil magic.


    But later it was found after many observations that even though the vile potions, spells and rituals could be used for good things they had side effects on the casters. Repeated usage of the kinds of spells like the vile rituals and curses, led the casters to losing their sanity little by little until they eventually became insane and lost mental stability. This led to the elders of various communities deciding that the usage of these kinds of magic must be controlled and hence to do this the classification of magic was necessary.


    To make differentiating the various spells and rituals easy for the elders, the wizards possessing mage sight came forward and provided their help. These people were easily able use their sight and help the various elders categorize the different spells, potions and ritual into two categories: The magic that had side effects on the user and the magic that did not. All they had to see was whether the core of the caster gained black spots after performing a spell or making a vile potion. With the information provided by the mage sight possessors, the Elders were able to deduce the dark black spots in the magic core were responsible for the people losing their sanity. The more dark black spots a person had, the more they were in risk of losing their sanity.


    After more experiments they were able to find that the greater the will power of a person the more they will be able to resist the effects of the dark spots and resist insanity that came with it. Some people did not show any signs of insanity even when their core was nearly half black while some became insane after a few black spots appeared in their magic core.


    So after many experiments and the invaluable help of people possessing mage sight, magic was finally categorized into light and dark magic. There was no grey magic but people sometimes used the term to label the dark magic used for good deeds.


    Light magic consisted of the magic that did not have any side effect on the user. Almost all types of magic were included in this criteria. Some vile spells, that seemed like they were dark like the bone breaking and blood boiling curses were also entered in the light category since they did not have any side effects on the caster. Hence it could be said that all the light magic were not good magic.


    Dark magic category included the various rituals and potions that required sacrifices or led to the person using them losing their sanity and humanity. The many ritual Voldemort used to increase his strength quickly belonged to this category.


    The dark category also included spells that required malicious intent and dark thoughts towards the target to cast. These spells were very addicting and when used regularly without any control or restraint, led to the castor becoming a crazy lunatic. The Death Eaters were a prime example for this. The perfect example was Bellatrix Black who was said to be well mannered pureblood lady before she joined the Death Eaters. Her current state was the end result of uncontrolled use of dark magic.


    The unforgivables as they are termed in the ICW countries were also added in the dark magic category. They could also not be termed as evil magic.


    Two of the unforgivable curses were created by some British wizards many years back with good intentions. The Avada kedavra (AK) curse was made to give the various cattle painless and clean death. The Imperious was designed to help mentally ill wizards gain their sanity. These spells were now used for completely different purposes. The AK for easy killing and the Imperious which ironically made the victims mad when placed under it for long duration.


    The Cruciatus curse which also belonged to the unforgivable category was designed as a torture spell. But unlike the other unforgivable the opposite happened here. The Cruciatus spell which was created for torture was now used in many countries to heal patients and in some cases as a defibrillator. Most of the people who have issues with their nervous system are treated using this torture curse.


    The unforgivable had many side effects on the user so their usage even for good deeds was not encouraged. Also they were termed as unforgivable only in the ICW countries because their usage was banned and when caught were sentence to life time in prison. In other countries only when these spells have been used with malicious intent are the castors sentenced.


    Since the Dark spells also had good uses, time was put in research for ways to remove the side effects. After many years, a way a found. A cleansing ritual was invented which when performed within 24 hours of the usage of the dark magic led to the complete removal of the side effects. The ritual completely removed the new dark black spots that were produced in the user''s magic core after using the dark magic. The only bad thing about the ritual was that the ingredients for the ritual were costly and there was a cool down period of 3 days before another cleansing ritual could be attempted. Hence this ritual could not be used all the time and due to this dark magic could not be properly used.


    This was not a major problem for me and I was satisfied with just this since the ritual provided me a safe way to learn and practice dark magic.


    Coming to the topic of Horcrux which is an important part of the Harry Potter universe, the information about it was openly available in the academy library. I was confused at first when I saw this but after reading the information in the books and learning why this was done, I agreed with their reasoning for openly releasing the information. After reading the books on the topic, no sane person would ever be interested in making an Horcrux.


    An Horcrux is a soul anchor which is made by using an act of emotionless murder to split the soul into two halves and storing the soul to a magical artifact. The artifact acts as the soul anchors and prevents the soul of the person from passing on to the afterlife on event of death. The soul anchor does its job till the soul inside it dies on reaching its fated natural death.


    Coming to the other disadvantages of using this failed method.


    It does not allow the person to increase his natural lifespan. Also due to the fact that the soul has been fractured, none of the rituals that can be used to increase natural lifespan will work for the person.


    While creating the soul anchor, the individual splits his soul which leads to the individual sacrificing parts of his personality. The individual will become literally incapable of love or happiness or some other personality trait. This will lead to the person eventually becoming a psychopath.


    Another disadvantage is that, on death, the individual will become a wandering soul without a physical body. Rituals must be used by a trusted helper, which is not always available, to create a physical body for the individual before the soul could possess the body and be reborn.


    One more disadvantage is that the Horcrux only protects the soul and not the physical body. So to kill the person all one has to do is cut of the person''s limbs and keep him prisoner until his natural death of old age.


    All these disadvantages make this method more trouble than it is worth and no sane person will be interested to try it. Thus this information was freely available in the library to discourage everyone from trying the foolish method. Some other methods also had detailed information but they were also ineffective methods. To my disappointment, the information about the effective methods like the philosopher stone was not openly available in the library.

 Chapter 80 - Voldemorts Horcruxes

    Coming to Voldemort''s usage of Horcruxes. He was a fool to try to make a Horcrux without complete knowledge or research on the topic. The Horcrux creation was already bad for an individual but his incomplete knowledge and the rush in creating one led to many more disastrous side effects.


    His first Horcrux was hastily made after the death of Myrtle during his fifth year and this led to many additional problems for his mind and magic. The main problem was that for the anchor, he used a ordinary diary which was not a magical artifact. This condition was an important requirement for a soul anchor. Due to his chosen item not meeting the required condition, the Horcrux creation ritual forcefully fractured his magic core into two parts and used one part to enchant the ordinary diary. Tom Riddle was left with only half of his core. This happened mainly due to the fact that his core was not m?tur? and could not resist the forceful fracture during the ritual. Had he performed the ritual after attaining magical maturity, his core would have resisted the fracture successful and only some magic to partially enchant the diary would have been lost.


    I know from his memories that he found this mistake a day after the creation of the horcrux but could not do anything to heal his magic core. There was no way for him to ask for a diagnosis and solution from a healer since he could not tell the healer what he had done that led to the fracturing of his core. Had he asked for help, he could have managed to somewhat rectify the problem. But he was unable find any solution on his own due to the fact that it was a unique case since no one was foolish enough to try something like the Horcrux ritual while possessing an immature magic core. Only old wizards afraid of death chased after such methods.


    After attaining magical maturity, the fracturing was permanent. Nothing he did after attaining maturity was able to fix this fracturing.


    Due to the fracturing, he had only half his original core with half the potential. He needed double the required effort to increase his strength and the max possible size of the core was halved. At his peak Tom Riddle had a core with the strength of only 449.5. Any other after the same effort in increasing strength would have had the strength of 999.


    Riddle did not know this at first. He thought he only needed double effort and he would eventually become the strongest wizard. That is why he stayed in Britian after his graduation and spent his time making more Horcruxes instead of researching ways to solve his problem. He spent more than 10 years in Britain finding magical artifacts and making horcruxes. One day the rise in strength of his core stopped. He had peaked out at 449.5. Nothing he did helped in solving the problem and resume the increase in strength. Riddle was devastated.


    Any other wizard would have given up on their dream to become a strong wizard after finding this out but not Tom Riddle. Since he did not find any solution in Britain, he decided to travel around the world looking for one.


    He was successful after many years of searching all around the world. The places he was allowed to enter was limited due to the wizards finding the darkness in him and thus he had to search in the shady places in the magical world. He found the solution for his problems during one of his travels in magical Egypt after graduating from Hogwarts.


    The solution was the Dark mark that he used to brand his death eaters. The Dark mark was not just a method of summoning the death eaters. If it was so, then the dark mark would not lighten or darken depending on the state of health of Voldemort. The Dark mark brand was using a vile magic which forcefully connected the servant''s core to the master core. The Dark mark used the connection to forcefully solve the issue with magic core and increase the core to the max size. There was a continuous drawing of magic from the servant cores to maintain the size of Voldemort''s core. The connection also gave Voldemort another advantage. Every time Voldemort''s core was depleted after casting a spell, the connection recharged the core back to full. This gave him unlimited stamina and it was for this reason that Voldemort was feared during the wizarding war. He fought continuously during raids without any sign of tiring.


    This theory also explained why Tom Riddle lost to Harry potter just after he was reborn in 1995. At the time of his rebirth he had only gained his physical body which had only 50% magic strength which was close to the strength of Harry Potter. There was no time for him to wait for the connection with the Dark mark to double his strength. This and the fact that Harry had more willpower due to his upbringing allowed him to best Voldemort in the duel at the graveyard.


    At 100% strength Harry would have lost easily. This was why Harry couldn''t do anything to Voldemort at the end of his fifth year. Voldemort had regained his complete strength and easily fought Dumbledore who used the Elder wand to a standstill. All this time Harry could only watch from the sidelines.


    Coming back to the Dark Mark. The Dark Mark linked the death eaters core to Voldemort''s core. For the linking to be successful, the core of a follower must meet some criteria. This was why there was a initiation ritual that a new Death eater had to follow before he could take up the mark. From Voldemort''s memories I found that one condition was that the magic core of the follower must be at least 50% dark black. To accelerate this process a Death eater during his initiation had to do many vile things which included murder of a whole family using the darkest spells. And also the core could not be linked without the person''s willingness so all the acts that were done by the Death eater were done on his own free will. I had only seen one memory of the initiation process but that was enough to give me nightmares and judge that Death eaters should not be given a second chance and killed mercilessly.


    The connection with the core of his followers gave me a perfect way to kill of all the Death eaters in one shot. I found out that if Voldemort was given an instant death like with a killing curse, nothing will happen to the death eaters via backlash but if I killed Voldemort slowly and forced him to continuously draw on the magic of his servants to survive until the servants had no magic left, I could theoretically turn all the Death Eaters permanently into squibs. This was a perfect way to enact judgement on the death eaters.


    Coming back to the mistakes Tom Riddle made while making the Horcrux. He just did not read up more on the subject and foolishly made the worst mistake of his life. When he split his soul several times, the part of soul present inside his body got smaller and smaller, making him mad and a psychopath. This also reduced his intelligence by a lot and hence he could not get past a first year Hogwarts level obstacle course last Hogwarts term. Also his foolish action of acting on a prophecy while his side was winning the war was a result of this.


    Making more than one Horcrux also had another disadvantage. The different parts of the soul while separately stored in remote locations still had a connection due to being part of the same soul and using this connection after finding one Horcrux, all others could be found easily. So making more than one Horcrux was a big mistake. It made them easier to find and destroy.


    Coming to how to destroy the Horcruxes. First of all there was no way to kill only a part of the soul and send it to afterlife. On destruction of a soul anchor, the part of the soul goes back and rejoins the main soul but the soul still remains fractured. The good thing for the owner of the Horcrux due to this happening is that he will regain some part of his sanity and intelligence.


    This is the reason why there was great difference between Voldemort in Harry''s first year and Voldemort in Harry''s fourth year in the canon. After gaining back the diary soul which was 50% of original soul, Riddle gained back some parts of his sanity and intelligence. This is the reason why Riddle did not use the ritual that he used in Harry''s fourth year to get back his body in Harry''s first year itself. He was dumb and did not remember the methods of gaining back his physical body while he was possessing Quirrell.

 Chapter 81 - More Academy days

    The academy days continued and I progressed rapidly in my selected magical fields and exercises.


    I quickly impressed Healer Sesha with my intelligence and she even allowed me to treat some low risk patients which gave me the much needed experience and confidence. She worked me to the ground and taught me many things in healing after seeing my talent. I too helped her a lot in her Healer duty and in her medical research.


    One day while I was ?ssisting Healer Sesha in the hospital, I heard her hissing during treatment process. I was shocked and delighted after hearing that. After the treatment was completed and we were back in her office,


    I asked, "Did you just use parselmagic to heal that patient? I did not know you were a parselmouth, Teacher?"


    She smiled and replied, "Yes that was parselmagic. Most of the powerful healing spells are part of parsel magic. My family is full of parselmouths and possessing it is the main reason why I chose the healing profession."


    I was delighted after hearing this. One of the main reasons for my trip to India was to search for some way to become a parselmouth. I had searched the whole library for some way I could get the gift but was still had not found anything. The only thing I found was a paragraph in a book on rituals that confirmed that such a ritual that could be performed to gain the gift existed which but other than that I did not find anything else. There were no books on the ritual and the steps to be performed to complete the ritual. There were books written in parseltongue in the library but they were useless to me without being a parselmouth. I was almost on the verge of given up hope.


    I asked "Teacher, is there any way I could become a parselmouth?"


    Healer Sesha laughed and replied "I have been waiting for this question. I knew you would ask me this after the parselmagic demonstration. You are not the only one though. Every Healer asks this question when they see the usefulness of parselmagic in healing. Coming to the answer to your question, the answer is Yes. There is a ritual that could can be performed to become a parselmouth. But don''t get your hopes up because the main ingredient of this ritual is very rare and hard to find."


    I was excited now and asked "What is the main ingredient Teacher?"


    She replied "A class XXXX or above magical snake which is atleast 500 years old. A snake meeting these conditions has not been seen for many years. Many people have tried to find such a snake in recent years but no one has been successful. There is a high reward of 1 million Galleons for anyone that can find such a snake and capture it alive. The task has been there for the past 100 years without anyone completing it. So don''t get your hopes up."


    I was extremely delighted after hearing that but did not show my joy on my face. Due to the 1 million galleon reward, if someone realizes that I know the location of such a snake then I would have to fear for my life. I was strong but the wizards here were many times stronger than me.


    I asked "Is the ritual instructions available in the library teacher? I would like to make a copy just in case. I am hoping I will be lucky to find a snake that meets the criteria during my life time."


    Healer Sesha smiled and replied "No the instruction are not available in the public library. Due to the rarity of the main ingredient, some elders decided to remove information on the ritual from the library. A selfish decision by them as they did not want others to use the ritual when they cannot."


    I asked "Is there any way I can get a book on the ritual teacher?"


    Healer Sesha "Yes there is a way. Become an elder of the academy and use the power gained on becoming one to ask for the book."


    I said "But teacher, you know I cannot become an Elder here. I have responsibilities back home and there is no way I can leave all that to become an Elder here. Is there any other way?"


    Healer Sesha "There is another way but why are you in a hurry? I will promise you I will gift you the book when you become a Master Healer so you don''t have to become an elder."


    I replied "What if I come across such a snake tomorrow? I don''t want to live with regrets. I am not even a healer currently. It will take me atleast 3 years to become a Master Healer. I cannot take the huge risk. Can you please tell me the other way teacher?"


    Healer Sesha "You really want this badly? The other way is for me to get the book from my tribe''s library. But I cannot give you the book for free since it is my tribe''s property. Tell you what, you help me with completing my current research and I will get you the book. I can use the excuse of you helping me to complete the research to get you a copy of the book. I need some very rare ingredients that can be found only in dangerous areas. I hear you are excelling in your duelling classes. So you will be able to get me those ingredients. When I complete my research, you will get the ritual instructions."


    The things she required were spread over all of India and some parts of China near the border with India. All were dangerous places were people rarely went. It was obviously going to be dangerous since otherwise she would not need my help. But to achieve my dream of becoming a parselmouth I was ready to face the dangers.


    My first adventure was nearby in the Himalayas. The objective was to search for a mountain Yeti cave and collect certain parts from the Yeti and also collect certain plants that grew only inside the Yeti caves.


    I was really surprised by the fact that the Yeti was real. It was hard to believe because I thought if a Yeti existed then non magical people would have confirmed its existence by now due to the fact that the Himalayan mountains were frequented by tourists. Maybe it was the work of the obliviators.


    The Yeti were endangered species of magical creatures and their population was already very low so I was told to not kill the Yeti by the Elders. Due to this I knew the battle was going to be tough and the Yeti was going to be hard to subdue since it had magically resistant skin.


    Hence I took a helper along with me. Rohit readily agreed to come with me. He wanted to compare his physical prowess with that of the Yeti. We took of one day early morning from the academy and started searching.


    I found the Yeti quite easily. The mage sight was a cheat ability for hunters no wonder my ancestors were famous for it. The Yeti looked like a huge white Gorilla but almost human like. It used hands and legs like humans and could be seen as a beastman. It had two horns on the head that looked very dangerous.


    The battle was not too tough. Magically enhanced Rohit at full power was only slightly weaker than Rohit and I used the distraction of their battle to conjure strong unbreakable ropes and tie the Yeti up. Rohit was satisfied with the short fight that I allowed him to have. After that getting the ingredients was very easy.


    The next adventure was with Aryan whose flying ability came handy in the task. I was slowly learning flying from Aryan but it would take me a long time before I could smoothly fly like Aryan. The objective was collecting some eggs of the giant magical bird called Garuda. I used my falcon form to find the next first and the nest day came back with Aryan for stealing the egg. While he flew to the nest to get the egg, I continuously cast magic on him to hide him from the mother bird. The task was accomplished flawlessly.


    Next came the parts of a five headed snake and after that was the tusk of a magical elephant from south India. Some other trips to a dark forest and the Indian Desert later, I had collected everything on the list. I took more of my new academy friends with me during my adventures and had loads of fun.


    The success in her research allowed Healer Sesha to be promoted to become a Master Healer. She was so happy with her promotion that she went to her tribe the next day and got me a copy of the book that I required. The book was the real deal and provided detailed instructions about the ritual. It gave a brief introduction about parselmagic and then went on to explain each ingredient and its use in the ritual.


    I searched for the required ingredients that were needed for the ritual and stored it in my trunk under a stasis charm. The ingredients were indigenous to India and could not be found in Britain.


    Despite becoming a Master Healer, Elder Sesha still followed the same routine. So my healing studies progressed without any disruption.

 Chapter 82 - Academy days End

    The rest of my days in the academy passed by very quickly due to how busy I was everyday. Soon it was time for my return. I had achieved all of the things I had come here for and gained a lot more.


    In the meditation exercise, I had reached the middle stage in physical strengthening which was increasing the strength of organs. My bones had become very strong and this was seen in how strong my punches and kicks currently were. The next stage was muscle strengthening which would give me even more increase in strength.


    I had to come back here if I wanted to know the instruction for the next meditation exercise. The elder explained that without someone guiding me in the beginning of each exercise I could make life ending mistakes. I had no problem in coming back. Now that I knew the location of the academy and the portkey coordinates, I could easily create a portkey and come here anytime I wanted, even during Hogwarts school hours.


    In duelling, I had come along a long way. I had defeated 12 of the 14 members in my group by the end of the first month. Only ones I could not defeat were Aryan who was the most experienced in the group and another Indian kid who I was not close to. During the second month of my stay the groups were changed and a new Elder had become the incharge of my group. I was told that this happened every month so as to make sure that the students can fight against many more people and familiarize with different fighting styles. In this group by the end of the month I defeated 13 of the 14 members. The last one was a prodigy and was even magically stronger than me. He was 6 years older so it did not bother me. I will catch up to him soon.


    My mage sight had also improved by quite a bit too. I could now see a distance of 15 meters through a physical wall and also toggling between different modes had become very quick and smooth.


    At the end of my two months in the academy, I measured my magic strength and I was quite happy with the reading of 532. I was as strong as an Elite wizard now. The rich magical environment at the academy and the daily duels in the classes had sped up my progress by quite a lot.


    Coming to the Healing side, I had become close to gaining a healer''s licence in India. With my current level I could gain one in Britain though. Healer Sesha told me all I needed was more practical experience and I would ace the Healer certification test.


    Coming to my other studies in the library, there was not too much time for them due to the hectic schedule and doing extra time in the Hospital on some days. So I was nearly at the same level as when I entered the academy in rest of the subjects.


    I did make good use of the free time I had in learning the specialties of India in the subjects I was already master level in. The people of southern regions of India had taken Ancient runes, Arithmancy and warding to new heights and I had read many books on them. I got inspired by the many things I found in the books and invented new types of wards. There was also the Black family Grimoire that I had yet to read which I knew contained information about the more dangerous wards. I was sure I could make my family wards unbeatable even from missile attacks after a few more years of research.


    Most of my free time in library was spent on Healing and Duelling books so I did not find time to look into other sections other than some short reading whenever I found interesting books. I was always welcome in the academy so I could come back later to look through them.


    I informed the Elders and Healer Sesha that I had to leave. They were quite sad to see me go especially Healer Sesha since she was losing her errand boy but she knew I had no choice but to finish my Hogwarts education. I had told everyone about the contract when they asked me why I did not graduate from the school early since I was already so advanced in many subjects. I told them I would be back soon since I had to return in few months to get the instructions for my next meditation exercise.


    Before I left my duelling class friends and healer friends threw me a going away party. I had become very close with them since I did not need to hide too much secrets from them. There was no politics here and no one had other agendas when they made friends. Due to this I had more friends here than in Hogwarts. I learnt a lot from my Hospital friends and my duelling friends. The hospital friends provided me lots of invaluable advice while the duelling friends were fun to hang out with.


    If not for the Basilisk I will very reluctant to leave the academy and go to Hogwarts. The return journey was quick. All I had to do was put in the coordinates of the black castle in a portkey and once I activated the portkey after leaving the range of the academy wards, I was back home. There was no way the Ministry of Magic could detect portkey usage so I could use them frequently without any worry. There was a licence for portkey making but that would be required only if I was caught using one by an Auror.